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By Bill Koch
Go.BEARCATS.com
CINCINNATI - The 40-point victories and 90-point offensive performances were bound to come to an end at some point for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats, but they didn't figure to end Tuesday night against Southeastern Louisiana.
The fact that they did was disturbing in one sense, but welcome in another. The good news for the Bearcats, who broke into the AP Top 25 on Monday at No. 24, was that they still managed to post a 64-49 victory before a crowd of 6,824 at Fifth Third Arena in the Barclays Center Classic despite shooting a season-low 40.7 percent from the field and scoring 32 points below their season average of 96.2.
With Big Ten foe Nebraska up next Friday night in Brooklyn, such a close game was welcomed by UC coach Mick Cronin.
"As bad as it was, I think it gives us a chance on Friday because Nebraska has been in a game at Villanova in that little pavilion and we had not been in a game," Cronin said, "so it was good for us to get in a little bit of a game, maybe wake our guys up a little bit."
The Lions from the Southland Conference trailed by eight at halftime and by 12 early in the second half but scrapped and fought their way back into contention. With 10:55 left, the Bearcats led by only three at 38-35. It fell to freshman forward Jacob Evans to come to the rescue.
Evans scored the next eight points for UC on two free throws and a couple of treys followed by a Troy Caupain 3-pointer to put the Bearcats on top, 49-37, with 6:58 remaining. Southeastern (1-4) got back to within seven, but UC (5-0) finished with a 15-7 run to put the game away.
Caupain and Evans both finished with 15 points to lead UC. For Evans, it was a career high.
"You saw why we recruited him," Cronin said of Evans. "He was able to start getting comfortable."
The Bearcats out-rebounded Southeastern, 38-28, and forced 15 turnovers, but they scored only 11 points off 16 offensive rebounds and their big men had trouble scoring inside against the Lions' man-to-man defense and double-teams around the basket.
"They played real hard," Caupain said. "They were battling us the whole game. They were real, real aggressive. They had athletes. They just came ready. They came off a big-time loss to Nebraska. They prepared well, you've got to give them a lot of credit. We got outworked."
Cronin said he wasn't surprised to see the Bearcats have a tough time offensively because they had yet to play extensively against a man-to-man defense this season. They also had to deal with a Southeastern team that was intent on taking a big bite out of the shot clock on each possession to keep UC from getting into transition.
"I was hoping we wouldn't,"Cronin said, "but I thought we'd struggle against their man-to-man, against their converging on the post, their trapping in the post, unless we came out and made every shot and we came out and missed every shot. We missed wide open shots."
It would be too convenient for the Bearcats to blame their offensive woes on the fact that they had been ranked for the first time in more than a year and let it go to their heads, but Cronin wasn't buying that, not for a second.
"What rankings?" he said, "In what poll? I could care less. Next question. I just don't care. I have no comment. I have no quote. It means nothing. I think Southern Louisiana was the problem tonight. Give them credit."
On the plus side for UC, it managed to win even though Farad Cobb scored only two points, well below his team-leading 16.5 per game. Shaq Thomas also scored only two, meaning the Bearcats got only four points from two starters. But Caupain played his best game of the season with four assists, two steals and no turnovers in 34 minutes in addition to his 15 points, and Jacobs was there to save the day when it looked as if Southeastern might actually have the chance to pull the upset.
"We just stayed together as a team," said sophomore Gary Clark, who scored 12 points with eight rebounds.
That's exactly what Cronin was hoping to see from his team with the Cornhuskers, who beat Southeastern, 92-65, on Tuesday, looming on the horizon.
"I really believe that we would have been in deep trouble Friday if we had not been in some sort of a game," Cronin said, "not that I'm happy. That's the only thing that gives me joy tonight."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years - 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer - before joining the staff of Go.Bearcats.com in January, 2015.