TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands – Mick Cronin has been waiting for the past three years to see that look in Gary Clark's eyes, the look that tells his opponents that he's going to score against them and there's not much they can do about it.
The University of Cincinnati basketball coach saw flashes of it Monday in the Bearcats' win over Buffalo when Clark dominated the last four minutes of a close game, then saw it more clearly Wednesday when the 6-foot-9 senior forward scored the Bearcats' first 13 points to lead them to a 78-53 win over Wyoming in the championship game of the inaugural Cayman Islands Classic at John Gray Gymnasium.
After struggling to win by six points in their first game here, the 12th-ranked Bearcats (6-0) won their last two games by an average score of 76.5 to 50.5. Following the trophy presentation at mid-court, freshman guard Trevor Moore celebrated by dancing to the Caribbean music that blared from the public address system, his teammates futilely attempting to match him move for move.
Winning the championship was a fitting way for UC to end a five-day stay in the islands that featured plenty of sunshine, water and beautiful scenery.
What Cronin will remember most from his trip is the way Clark, who was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player, dominated offensively. He scored 24 points and pulled down 14 rebounds against Buffalo and finished with a team-high 17 points against Wyoming (4-1) on 8-of-12 shooting. His point total would almost surely have been higher if foul trouble hadn't limited him to 21 minutes.
Clark averaged 16.3 points and 9.3 rebounds during the three-game tournament and raised his career point total to 1,080, which puts him 42nd on UC's career scoring list.
"Gary was an all-American early," Cronin said. "Unfortunately, he got his second foul, because I was watching him come into his own in front of our eyes. Hopefully, he keeps that up. It's been four years to try to get him to get that look in his eye."
For the second straight game, the Bearcats built a big lead before their opponents' knew what hit them. They jumped out to a 9-0 lead against Richmond on Tuesday, then took an 11-0 lead against Wyoming due to Clark's offense and a stifling defense.
UC led, 20-2, after the first nine minutes and 37-20 at halftime. Clark discovered early on that he could score pretty much at will against Wyoming's interior defense and scored the Bearcats' first 13 points before Jarron Cumberland made a jump shot to stop his teammate's personal run.
The Cowboys were being shut out until Louis Adams dropped in two free throws with 13:44 remaining in the first half and didn't record a field goal until Adams made a jump shot with 10:34 left. UC led by 21 points with 2:54 left in the half.
After the game, the soft-spoken Clark acted as if what he had done was no big deal.
"You've just got to be ready to read the defense," he said, "no matter what they're in, zone or man, and tonight it started off with me. But typically you don't know who it is - it could be Kyle (Washington) or Jarron (Cumberland) or Jacob (Evans). It just depends on who's open."
But Clark wasn't scoring against Wyoming because he was open. He scored because he was able to put the ball on the floor and maneuver successfully around the basket. That intense determination to score is what Cronin has been hoping to get from Clark since he arrived as a freshman in 2014.
"I thought the Buffalo game gave him a lot of confidence," Cronin said. "You could see it tonight. I've been through that with (Sean Kilpatrick). I've been through that with Kenyon Martin his senior year. That's why I wish he wouldn't have got his second foul because it was fun to watch. Because we're going to need that. He's got to take it personally that he wasn't on the ESPN Top 50. He's got to take it personally that he wasn't on the first Wooden Watch List. It's an evolution for Gary and it's something I'm going to stay on him about."
Washington also had a big game for the Bearcats, scoring 16 points with 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season and the eighth of his UC career. And Evans, who was named to the all-tournament team, scored 10.
But Washington was more interested in talking about Clark than his own double-double.
"I told Gary that he was the catalyst," Washington said. "I started out aggressive and took a few shots, but it wasn't there at first. I said let me just rebound because Gary's taking control of the game. Everybody saw it. He had his fingerprints all over it. I just wanted to be there for him because he's been there for me so many times. He was the catalyst and I just said let me do my part. That was it."
UC limited the Cowboys to 31.3 percent shooting and held them to six 3-pointers in 21 attempts for 28.6 percent, well below their average of 37 percent. Wyoming made only five field goals in the first half. The Cowboys were outscored, 38-16 in the paint, 21-4 off turnovers, and 22-7 in second-chance points. The Bearcats never trailed and led by 29 with 1:07 remaining.
Wyoming played without the injured Justin James, its second-leading scorer at 10.8 points per game, but it's unlikely that James would have made that much difference against UC's smothering defense.
"Once we started to put the ball in the basket it allowed us to set our defense and I thought that rattled them," Cronin said. "We jumped on them early and I thought we did a great job with the scouting report that coach (Larry) Davis gave our team. Their lifeblood was the 3-point line last year and this year and we tried to take that away from them."
Wyoming tried to take away Clark, too, but had no answer for him. The only thing that stopped him was his own foul trouble.
The Bearcats boarded their bus and headed for the airport immediately after the game for the long flight back to Cincinnati, having dominated a tournament that frankly they were supposed to win as the only ranked team in the field.
"We don't underestimate any competition," Washington said, "but we had our minds set on winning it. It's an accomplishment, but we want to keep on going."
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.