TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati Bearcats fell behind early, were never able to recover despite a late comeback and fell to Xavier, 89-76, in the Crosstown Shootout on Saturday before 10,817 fans at Cintas Center.
UC trailed by 13 at halftime and by 23 with 10:20 to go before a scoring surge by Jacob Evans III in the last few minutes pulled it to within nine with 1:26 to play. But they ran out of time and lost to the Musketeers for the third time in the last four games.
The 11th-ranked Bearcats (7-1) still lead the series, 50-35, but No. 21 Xavier (7-1) has won eight of the last 11 against UC. The Musketeers have won 35 straight non-conference home games and are 7-1 against UC at Cintas.
Evans led UC with 23 points, 18 in the second half and 13 in the final 2:47. Cane Broome scored 16, Jarron Cumberland had 15 and Gary Clark had 14 points with seven rebounds. Kyle Washington, who averages 10.4 points and 5.6 rebounds, failed to score in 14 minutes and pulled down two rebounds.
Trevon Bluiett led Xavier with 28 points. Kerem Kanter scored 15 for the Musketeers and made both of his 3-point shots after going 0-for-6 from long range in his first seven games.
Xavier started the game with an 11-2 run and never trailed, doing most of its early damage by eluding the UC defense for layups. The Bearcats didn't record their first field goal until Clark made a 3-pointer nearly five minutes into the first half.
By the time they made their second field goal – a layup by Broome – the Musketeers had a 21-5 lead. Bluiett, who scored 40 points in a losing cause to UC last year, scored 13 in the first half, frequently on wide-open looks at the basket.
"We came out soft," Broome said.
UC coach Mick Cronin said the Bearcats let their inability to make shots early affect them on defense.
"I didn't get the job done as as coach," Cronin said. "Great teams don't get their fuel from their offense. So you start the game and we had a couple great looks. We didn't knock them down. They did. It rattled us. We let our lack of offense rattle us. Made shots come and go like your high school girl friend. Defense has got to be your constant and it wasn't for us until it was too late."
Xavier shot 57.1 percent from the field in the first half and made seven of 11 shots from long range while UC struggled to get an open look against the Musketeer defense.
"We took ourselves out of the game," Evans said. "They hit some shots early and I felt like we were trying to respond by taking quick shots. We've got to slow down, run our offense, get a good shot or get fouled."
The Bearcats did a better job defensively in the second half, limiting the Musketeers to 37.9 percent shooting, but by then they had dug themselves too big of a hole.
Xavier out-rebounded UC, 44-27, a stark turnaround from UC's 86-78 win last year when the Bearcats had 42 rebounds to 33 for the Musketeers, including 19 offensive rebounds.
"That's all we talked about," said Xavier coach Chris Mack. "We showed all 19 rebounds to our team two days ago."
Xavier shot 47.4 percent for the game, made 10 of 21 3-point shots and 25 of 30 from the free throw line. UC shot 42 percent from the field, made eight of 28 from long range and was 10-for-16 from the line. The Musketeers outscored UC in second-chance points, 19-5.
"We didn't play really well," Cronin said. "We got out-rebounded by 17. I don't care who you play, you're going to lose when that happens."
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.