Cincinnati surged past DePaul with some great second half defense to win 75-70 tonight. You know what that means….
UPSIDE DOWN DEPAUL LOGO.
Cincinnati got off to a very slow start, slowly strangled the life out of DePaul's offense, and then in a wild turn of events, the teams traded shots to close the first half. Cincinnati broke the 30 point mark in the first half for the first time in over a month. Hell, they broke 40. It was a welcome sight.
Cincinnati hit back to back 3s to open the second half. The lead stayed in double digits most of the second half. DePaul made a little run late when they used some questionable no calls by the officials, a steal, a travel and a bad foul by Titus Rubles to cut the lead to 3 with 7.9 seconds left. Sean Kilpatrick iced the game with a pair of free throws.
The biggest story of the game was Cashmere Wright. The senior guard went off for 20 points on 8-11 shooting with 7 assists. With 15 minutes left in the game, Wright went down with an injury. The word on twitter from Dan Cronin is that it was a hamstring cramp behind the knee and that Cash could have returned. I choose to believe what he says because he wouldn't lie. Cash walked back to the bench on his own. He walked to the huddle every timeout. He appeared to be relatively ok. For a few minutes there, a lot of Bearcat fans (including me) freaked out at what would have been a horrible injury to the senior star.
Cincinnati had everyone score. Sean Kilpatrick had 18 points. He was 4-7 from the field, 3-4 from 3 and 7-10 at the foul line. He had a team high 6 rebounds. Nice bounce back game. JaQuon Parker had 12. Most surprisingly, Ge'Lawn Guyn had 7 points off the bench. It was the most points he's scored since November. Cheikh Mbodj had a huge game with 7 blocks. It was his career high.
For DePaul, Cleveland Melvin was incredible. He had 32 points on 14-20 shooting. He also had a game high 8 rebounds. That guy is a hell of a player. Brandon Young is also good, he had 18, but he's kind of very selfish with some of his decisions. He took 19 shots and had 5 turnovers. At the end of the game, he wasted all 7 seconds dribbling before putting up a 3. This DePaul team fights hard though. If they had some talent, they could not finish last in the Big East.
This was a nice win for UC. The margin wasn't really what you want. All that matters is the W. That's 3 road wins in the Big East. That's something to hang your hat on. Assuming this team can start holding home court, that's the combination for a good finish in the Big East.
15-2, 3-2. Bring on Marquette.
Box score via SI
CINCINNATI| MIN | REB (O/D) | AST | FG-A | FT-A | 3P-A | PF | ST | TO | BLK | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wright * | 0 | 2 (0/2) | 7 | 8-11 | 2-3 | 2-3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 20 |
| Kilpatrick * | 0 | 6 (0/6) | 3 | 4-7 | 7-10 | 3-4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 18 |
| Parker * | 0 | 3 (0/3) | 0 | 5-10 | 1-4 | 1-3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 12 |
| Mbodj * | 0 | 3 (0/3) | 0 | 2-3 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 6 |
| Rubles * | 0 | 2 (1/1) | 1 | 0-1 | 2-4 | 0-1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Guyn | 0 | 2 (0/2) | 0 | 2-3 | 3-4 | 0-0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| Thomas | 0 | 1 (0/1) | 0 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Jackson | 0 | 4 (1/3) | 1 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Nyarsuk | 0 | 3 (2/1) | 1 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Sanders | 0 | 3 (2/1) | 2 | 1-3 | 0-1 | 0-2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| TOTAL | 0 | 29 (6/23) | 15 | 25-42 | 19-31 | 6-13 | 15 | 2 | 19 | 12 | 75 |
| 59.5% | 61.3% | 46.2% | |||||||||
| * Starters | |||||||||||
DEPAUL| MIN | REB (O/D) | AST | FG-A | FT-A | 3P-A | PF | ST | TO | BLK | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melvin * | 0 | 8 (4/4) | 0 | 14-20 | 3-4 | 1-2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 32 |
| Young * | 0 | 2 (1/1) | 4 | 8-19 | 2-2 | 0-4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 18 |
| McKinney * | 0 | 3 (1/2) | 4 | 4-7 | 1-2 | 1-1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Kirk * | 0 | 4 (0/4) | 0 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Crockett * | 0 | 1 (0/1) | 1 | 1-7 | 0-0 | 0-3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Morgan | 0 | 1 (1/0) | 0 | 1-5 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Robertson Jr. | 0 | 2 (1/1) | 0 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Clahar | 0 | 3 (0/3) | 4 | 0-4 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| McDonald | 0 | 2 (0/2) | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 0 | 26 (8/18) | 13 | 31-66 | 6-8 | 2-14 | 21 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 70 |
| 47.0% | 75.0% | 14.3% | |||||||||
| * Starters | |||||||||||
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