Cincinnati Outlasts SMU 73-68 for Seventh Win in a Row

By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com

CINCINNATI – All night long, SMU's Jahmal McMurray had been lighting it up from long range against the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. 

He scored a team-high 21 points and had made five of 10 shots from three-point range when the Mustangs brought the ball down the floor for what they hoped would be the game-tying possession. But with his team trailing 73-70, McMurray inexplicably shot an air ball on a three-point attempt with 4.3 seconds remaining.
    
Cane Broome then made two free throws for UC to seal a 73-68 victory for the Bearcats on Saturday night before a sellout crowd 12,256 at Fifth Third Arena.
    
The victory was the seventh straight for the Bearcats (19-3 overall, 8-1 in the American Athletic Conference) and allowed them to pull back into a first-place tie with 13th-ranked Houston. SMU fell to 12-9 overall, 4-5 in the league.

Oddly enough, neither the SMU offense nor the UC defense did what it was supposed to do on the Mustangs' crucial possession.
    
"We did have a little wrinkle that we felt good about to get a better look and that's not where we went," said SMU coach Tim Jankovich. "I wish we would have because I think we could have got a better shot than the one that we did. Let's say we forgot to do it. How about that?"

On the UC side, the plan was for the Bearcats to foul once the clock ticked under seven seconds.

"For two reasons," said UC coach Mick Cronin. "We had a foul to give and we're up three. But Justin (Jenifer) didn't back up. He got up close enough to where (McMurray) couldn't get a comfortable shot up when he raised it up."

Junior guard Jarron Cumberland had another monster game for the Bearcats with 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists. He also had five turnovers. Keith Williams scored 13 points, all but three in the second half. Nysier Brooks added 10 and Broome scored 11, nine in the first half.

The Bearcats led by 12 at 40-28 with 3:21 left in the first half, but were unable to put away the Mustangs until the final minute, thanks to the same defensive deficiencies that have plagued them for most of the season.

"I thought the game should have been over at halftime," Cronin said. "When you make eight threes in the first half, shoot 53 percent and score 42 points, the game should be over. You should be up 15 to 20. But our first-half defense left a lot to be desired. We gave up 45 percent."

The Bearcats led by only seven at intermission and found themselves in a dogfight for most of the second half.

SMU pulled into a 60-60 tie with 6:17 left. The Mustangs trailed by only one at 64-63 before Cumberland made a three-pointer to make it 67-63 with 3:48 to play. But SMU, which played with only seven players due to NCAA probation and injuries, refused to fold.

The Mustangs trailed by two when Brooks made a layup with 42 seconds left after he had twice missed the front end of the one-and-one and then made only one of two free throws after a flagrant foul call against SMU.

"It was frustrating at the moment because I make those," said Brooks, a 66.3 percent free throw shooter this season. "I don't know why I couldn't get it to go in, but hey, you've just got to keep having faith in your team. My teammate got me open, I got a great pass from my other teammate and just finished the play.

Brooks' big bucket was the result of a called play. Cumberland freed him with a screen, Williams fed him with the pass, and Brooks made the shot.

"It was great execution of a set play," Cronin said. "I wanted to try to get the ball near the rim. I didn't want to shoot a jump shot."

But even the resulting four-point lead wasn't enough to put the Mustangs down for good. A basket by Jimmy Whitt Jr. trimmed UC's lead to two with 33 seconds left. A Cumberland turnover gave the Mustangs a chance to tie but Whitt's shot was no good. Williams was fouled after he secured the rebound. He missed the first free throw but made the second, setting up the ill-fated air ball by McMurray.

"It was good defense," Brooks said. "When it's good defense and good offense only God knows where the ball is going to go."

UC shot 48.1 percent for the game, but made only two of nine from three-point range after going eight for 17 in the first half. SMU shot 43.3 percent from the field and made 10 of 28 from behind the arc. The Bearcats out-rebounded SMU, 35-32. Neither team shot well from the free throw line. UC was 11-for-18, SMU six-for-11.

But the most telling stat was UC's whopping 20-1 advantage in bench points over the short-handed Mustangs.

"We knew they only played six or seven guys so we knew going in the bench would be the X factor," said UC's Trevor Moore.
    
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.