TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands – Pity poor Richmond.
The Spiders had the extreme misfortune Tuesday of having to face the 12th-ranked University of Cincinnati Bearcats the night after they barely escaped with a 73-67 victory over Buffalo.
UC coach Mick Cronin sounded philosophical after Monday's close call when he talked with reporters about just being grateful to secure the win and move on without getting anybody hurt. He was quite a bit more animated in the locker room with his players.
"He wasn't happy at all," said junior point guard Cane Broome. "He got on us."
As a result, the UC team that took the court against Richmond was a team determined to assert itself defensively and that was bad news for the Spiders. UC jumped out to a 9-0 lead, put together a 17-0 run later in the first half and led at halftime, 40-14.
The Bearcats (5-0) finished with a resounding 75-48 win in the second round of the Cayman Islands Classic at John Gray Gymnasium and will face Wyoming (4-0) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday for the tournament championship. The Cowboys advanced to the final with a 70-61 win over Louisiana.
Broome led UC with 13 points, followed by Jacob Evans with 12. Jarrod Cumberland scored UC's first six points, then never scored again. UC shot 54.3 percent from the field, 54.2 percent from 3-point range and held Richmond (1-3) to 38.1 percent shooting. The Bearcats led by as many 34 points with 2:11 remaining.
Walk-on guard Sam Martin, from St. Xavier and Summit Country Day high schools in Cincinnati, scored his first career points on two free throws with 1:16 left. Another walk-on, forward Jackson Bart, made a 3-pointer at the buzzer for his first career points.
"I thought Buffalo made us better yesterday," Cronin said. "They made us look in the mirror about how hard you need to play and your commitment and your focus on the defensive end. We came out and were able to jump them early and put the game away with our defense."
It took less than four minutes for the Bearcats to run out to a 9-0 lead. The onslaught began with two 3-pointers by Cumberland, followed by another from Evans. Mixed in with that fast offensive start for UC were three turnovers by the Spiders.
The Bearcats led, 14-6, with 13:31 left before ripping off 17 straight points. At one point they made three straight dunks, two by Evans sandwiched around one by Trevon Scott. Richmond finally ended the long scoring drought with a free throw by Julius Johnson with 3:57 remaining.
If that wasn't bad enough, the Spiders went from the 13:32 mark of the first half until the 40-second mark without a field goal until De'Mont Buckingham made a 3-pointer. With 1:01 left in the half, UC led by 30 at 40-10.
"It was our defense," Evans said. "We played good on offense, but we had a lot of turnovers. We just wanted to try to speed them up because we know they run a Princeton-style offense and we really didn't want to put ourselves in the half-court guarding all their back screens and slips."
Cronin changed his lineup for the Richmond game, starting Justin Jenifer in place of Broome at point guard and Nysier Brooks in the post in place of Kyle Washington. It was the second time this season that the UC coach has employed that lineup and he did it for a reason.
"I tried to start the best defensive lineup," Cronin said. "That was my thinking tonight. I want my guys focused on things that win games - defense, rebounding, physicality, and guys that play together. It starts on the defensive end for us."
But the picture wasn't completely rosy for UC.
The Bearcats continue to commit turnovers at a disturbing rate. Against Richmond, they had either 20 or 17, depending on which version of the box score you believed. The first one distributed immediately after the game had UC with 17 turnovers and Richmond with 18. Minutes later when the complete stat book was distributed, both teams had 20.
"We must have committed three more turnovers in the locker room," Cronin quipped.
But turnovers are no laughing matter to Cronin and his players.
"We're really concerned about that," said Broome, who committed five of UC's total. "We obviously don't want to turn the ball over, including myself. We also want to be aggressive. We don't want to be tentative. Coach preaches about it every day. That's something we have to work on because if we do that we're a pretty hard team to guard. We've just got to learn the balance of staying aggressive and being smart with the ball."
UC entered the game averaging 14.5 turnovers per game. That average went up regardless of which version of the stats you believe.
"I think it's two things," Cronin said. "One is playing faster. Two, we have five new players and you've got Cane and Justin, two new point guards. Even Jarron didn't start last year. I was blessed with senior guards last year. These guys are a little more explosive, but they're still turning it over too much. We've got to get better at it."
Cronin said he was hopeful the ball-handling will improve as Broome and Jenifer get more experience.
"It's got to," he said. "We'll see. It's my job."
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.