Tickets Box Score | Quotes | Notes | USATSI Photo Gallery 
Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI - During the first 10 minutes of the University of Cincinnati's game against South Florida on Thursday, it looked as if it would be one of those nights where the heavily favored Bearcats would have to struggle to eke out a win.
Instead, the Bearcats picked up their defensive intensity and blew away USF in the second half, 88-57, before 9,116 fans at Fifth Third Arena in their most lopsided conference victory of the season. Their point total would indicate an offensive show, but it was really defense that won the game.
"Coach was all about defense today," said UC point guard Troy Caupain, "heat up, play and get stops and we're going to be fine. We've been practicing all week on defense. That was his thing.
UC (17-6 overall, 7-3 in the American Athletic Conference) has won four in a row and six of its last seven games. USF (5-19, 2-9) lost for the sixth straight time against the Bearcats.
Six UC players scored in double figures and two of them - Caupain and Gary Clark - produced double-doubles. Caupain's 18 points and 10 assists gave him the first double-double of his career. Clark scored 16 points with 13 rebounds for his fourth and the seventh of his career. In addition, Jacob Evans and Coreontae DeBerry each scored 11 points, with Octavius Elli and Farad Cobb each scoring 10. Jahmal McMurray scored 17 to lead USF.
Getting the double-double meant a lot to Caupain, who asked JaQuon Parker, UC's assistant director of student-athlete development, not to talk about it when Parker raised the issue at halftime.
"I was like, just don't tell me because I remember one of the games that was the only thing that was on my mind and it kind of slowed me down," Caupain said. "I didn't get it and I was very upset. I had a few in high school and then I never had one in college. It's always nice to say that you had a double-double in a college game."
UC coach Mick Cronin was most pleased for DeBerry, the Bearcats' 6-foot-9, 265-pound hulk of a center who had three dunks in the second half that got the crowd fired up. DeBerry was five-for-six from the field.
"He was struggling a little bit," Cronin said. "If you look at our UConn game he didn't contribute a lot, but he was tremendous today. He was finishing with power and strength. Just watching him run the floor, his rebounding, his defense, he was with us tonight. When he plays like that it changes a lot of things for us."
UC struggled offensively early in the game, making only two of its first 10 shots, nine of which were 3-point attempts against USF's 1-3-1 zone defense. With 10:49 left in the first half, USF led, 18-12. Cronin attributed the slow start to the fact that the Bearcats hadn't played for a week. But they had certainly practiced during that time, with the emphasis on defense, and it showed as the game unfolded.
With the score tied at 29-29, UC ran off seven straight points in the final 1:23 to take a 36-29 lead. That was only the beginning of an onslaught that included a 23-3 run to start the second half, giving the Bearcats a 30-3 run overall. UC led at that point, 59-32.
"Once we turned up the heat defensively the game changed," Cronin said.
When the smoke cleared, UC had forced USF into 21 turnovers, outscored the Bulls, 29-5, in points off turnovers and 20-2 in fast break points. Granted, the Bearcats were playing one of the worst teams in the league, but watching them play so hard and so effectively in the second half gave the players a glimpse of how good they can be. Remember, this was the same USF team that lost to UC by only three in Tampa on Jan. 10.
"At the beginning of the second half, everyone's usually really tight but we were able to come out jump on them right away," Clark said. "It definitely was a big help for us to know that we can put the first half and the second half together because we have games like Tulane where we jump on teams at the very beginning of the game and the second half we kind of let them come back in the game."
Senior forward Shaq Thomas, who suffered a bone bruise on his right foot and a moderately sprained ankle last week against Connecticut, started but played only 17 minutes and scored one point.
"He kept saying he wanted to play but he didn't practice much yesterday," Cronin said. "You could see he was rusty."
Everyone else on the UC roster played with the exception of Tre Scott, who's being redshirted, and Quadri Moore. Cronin said Moore didn't play due to a "coach's decision."
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. He has written a new book, a memoir titled, "I Can't Believe I Got Paid For This." The book is available on-line only at CreateSpace and Amazon.com