TicketsDec. 12, 2015
By Bill Koch
Go.BEARCATS.com
CINCINNATI - So complete was Xavier's domination in the first half that it appeared as if the Musketeers could name their score in the second.
It didn't work out that way because the Bearcats found the resolve to cut a 16-point halftime deficit to five with 10:27 left. But in the end Xavier prevailed for the third straight year with a 65-55 victory over UC in the 83rd Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout on Saturday before a sellout crowd of 10,617 at Cintas Center.
No. 23 UC (8-2) still leads the series, 49-34, but No. 12 Xavier (10-0) has dominated in recent years with seven victories in the last nine games.
Octavius Ellis led UC with 13 points, but also committed five turnovers. Gary Clark, who scored 14 against XU last year, failed to score and took only two shots. Myles Davis scored 17 to lead the Musketeers.
UC, which never led, held Trevon Bluiett, XU's leading scorer at 15.9 points per game, to three points on 1-of-8 shooting, but it didn't matter because the Bearcats committed 16 turnovers that led to 19 XU points. Five of those turnovers occurred during a 3-minute stretch midway through the second half when they had trimmed XU's lead to seven and then to five, with the Cintas crowd becoming noticeably anxious.
XU coach Chris Mack said he expected UC's second-half comeback.
"That was about as uncomfortable of a 16-point lead at halftime as I've experienced," Mack said.
After the game, UC coach Mick Cronin heaped lavish praise on Mack and the entire Xavier program.
"Chris is one of the best coaches in the country," Cronin said. "They have a tremendous commitment to basketball here. They've got a great program. This isn't 1994, whatever that year was, in the MCC at Cincinnati Gardens. They've got everything you would want in a basketball program support-wise. They stopped a coach from taking a Pac-12 job. They're getting ready to renovate this place. They've got great support. That ship has long sailed in this rivalry."
After being thoroughly outplayed in every nearly every phase of the game in the first half to fall behind, 42-26, at intermission, UC scored the first 10 points of the second half.
"Less turnovers and rebounding the basket," UC guard Troy Caupain said when asked how the Bearcats came back so quickly. "We just had more aggression to us. We went on the offensive glass. We were lazy on the defensive end (in the first half), not getting back in transition. They had a lot of transition buckets and they were getting to the glass."
Cronin said there was no magic formula that he unveiled at halftime to get his team going.
"I'm not Puff the Magic Dragon," he said.
"You know what happened in the first half," he continued. "We got outplayed and we got sick of it…It's like (Bengals coach) Marvin Lewis always says: Do your job. We weren't getting anything done. The Xavier kids were getting everything done. We did a better job in the second half. We did a much better job of a lot of things in the second half."
With about nine minutes left, XU went to a 1-3-1 zone that seemed to bother the Bearcats, although Caupain said that wasn't the case. He theorized that the UC players simply rushed too much and might have let the magnitude of the moment get to them.
Whatever the reason, UC went scoreless from the 10:26 mark of the second half until Caupain made two free throws after a Mack technical with 6:46 to play. On UC's next possession, Ellis was fouled as he scored. Gary Clark rebounded Ellis' missed free throw and Jacob Evans missed a 3-pointer that would have cut the XU lead to four.
James Farr then made a layup for XU and after another UC turnover Jalen Reynolds scored to increase the XU lead to 11 with 3:25 remaining. The Musketeers had withstood the Bearcats' comeback, leaving UC to lament a missed opportunity.
"We came out kind of lackadaisical," said UC's Shaq Thomas, who scored 11 points with five rebounds and three assists. "If we put two halves like that together I think the game would have been much closer."
Cronin took solace in the way the Bearcats played in the second half, holding XU to 23 points and dominating the glass, but the turnovers were too much to overcome. He was also pleased to see Thomas assert himself in a big game.
"Ultimately, you're never going to beat a team that's going to be ranked in the Top 10, you're not going to beat a team like that with 16 turnovers," Cronin said. "You're just not going to have any chance to win. So really, any other question about strategy is a moot point. And proof of that is their best player scored three points and they win. They're in control of most of the game.That's because of our turnovers. We didn't give ourselves a chance. We don't care about the Crosstown stuff. It doesn't matter to us."
Bill Koch covered UC Athletics for 27 years - 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer - before joining the staff of GoBEARCATS.com in January, 2015 as featured columnist. Follow him on Twitter @bkoch.