TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
NEWARK, N.J. – It's true that there were several missed opportunities down the stretch that might have changed the outcome, but the University of Cincinnati Bearcats lost to fifth-ranked Florida on Saturday largely as the result of a passel of turnovers – 21 of them, to be exact.
The Gators, who entered the game burdened with a three-game losing streak, took advantage of the Bearcats' sloppy ball-handling, scoring 27 points off UC's miscues, and executed on offense in the final 1:26 to post a hard-fought 66-60 victory over UC before 9,112 fans at Prudential Center in the Never Forget Tribute Classic.
"We've got good players turning the ball over, which is a big, big problem," said UC coach Mick Cronin. "It's hard to win when you turn the ball over, nearly impossible to win. If we had won this game somehow with the turnover line it would have been a modern miracle."
Alas, there would be no miracles for UC in this game. With the score tied at 60-60, Florida coach Mike White called timeout and set up a play that resulted in a basket by Chris Chiozza in the lane. Chiozza scored the Gators' last six points, while the Bearcats were turning the ball over on their last two possessions.
No. 17 UC (7-2) lost its second straight game. No. 5 Florida (6-3) breathed a sigh of relief after consecutive losses to No. 1 Duke, Florida State and Loyola of Chicago.
"That was a really big win for us," said Florida coach Mike White, "a really big win against a very good team and a really, really consistent program that we have a lot respect for, one of the toughest teams in the country in our estimation, both mentally and physically. For my guys to have endured what they've endured over the past week, it's been a really rough week for us to say the least."
Cane Broome came off the bench and scored 15 points to lead UC on six-of-eight shooting, but committed one of the two crucial turnovers in the final 1:26. Jacob Evans scored 13 points but was 4-for-13 from the field and committed five turnovers. Kyle Washington scored 11 points and contributed four turnovers.
Egor Koulechov led Florida with 21 points, followed by Jalen Hudson with 17 and and Chiozza with 15. UC held the Gators to 37.9 percent shooting in the second half.
Florida's White tried a different wrinkle for his defense by doubling the post in an attempt to contain the Bearcats' two inside scorers – Gary Clark and Washington. And the strategy worked. Clark still managed to score nine points and pull down 13 rebounds, eight on the offensive end, but the two big men had to work for everything they got.
"They trapped the post," Cronin said. "They did a good job with that. We did a very poor job of handling it early. We handled it better as the game went on, but then we missed wide open shots."
UC's Broome was at a loss to explain why the Bearcats were so sloppy with the ball.
"Some of the turnovers were forced," he said, "but some of them it was just bad decision-making and we kind of paid for it at the end. It killed us."
The Bearcats looked like they would have their way against the Gators during the first five minutes when they built a 10-4 lead, but Florida scored six straight points to tie the score at 10-10. Already, that early in the game, UC was having trouble taking care of the ball. The Bearcats had six turnovers in the first eight minutes.
That trend continued throughout the first half and by intermission, UC had 13 turnovers that led to 17 points for the Gators.
UC trailed, 24-16, with 5:18 left in the first half. The Bearcats pulled even at 24-24 only to see the Gators knock down two straight treys to take a 30-24 lead. They had rebuilt their lead to eight with 25.9 seconds left before Broome blew past his defender for a layup as the half ended with Florida leading, 34-28
UC led, 53-49 lead with 7:53 to go, but Jarron Cumberland missed a free throw after he was fouled while making a layup, preventing the Bearcats from taking a five-point advantage. Florida then scored six straight to go back on top 55-53. All told, the lead changed hands 10 times with 13 ties, the last of which occurred after Clark missed the second of a bonus situation with 1:32 to play.
That left the two teams deadlocked at 60-60. The Bearcats wouldn't score again. After Chiozza's go-ahead basket, Evans missed a shot for UC. Chiozza then made two free throws to make it 64-60, with 20 seconds to play. Broome then had a pass stolen by Kevarrius Hayes with 13 seconds left.
"We're down four and we have a guy wide open at the foul line and he throws a one-hand pass," Cronin said. "You've got to stop at the foul line and shoot or throw a two-hand bounce pass. That's third grade summer camp. If you score there, there's 20 seconds left and you're down two. We're a team that presses. We had a time out, set your press up and we'll see what happens. It's probably fitting that we ended the game with two turnovers."
So now it's the Bearcats who have lost two straight after winning their first seven and they'll have only two days to prepare for unbeaten Mississippi State on Tuesday night at BB&T Arena.
"You've got to give credit to the other team," Broome said, "but we just didn't come up with a few things we needed to do. We needed to execute things at the end and be tough and we didn't do that. That's two games in a row that we came up short on the things that we needed to do like being tough and turnovers and things like that."
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.