The Bearcats turned the ball over 208 times in their 67-51 loss to Louisville tonight. Some of the turnovers were forced by the great Louisville defense. Some of the turnovers were fouls. Some of the turnovers were simply lazy passes that the Cards took the other way. All in all, Cincinnati turned it over 21 times according to ESPN and 20 according to SI. They turned it over on 34% of their possessions. That's a great way to lose!
Let's fish for positives. The most important thing is that Cashmere Wright shot the ball very well. He was 6-11, 3-5 from 3. It was his first game making more than 2 three pointers since St John's on January 5. Him playing well again is huge key for the remaining games. Hopefully he can have a big senior night performance.
Cincinnati hit the offensive glass very hard. They shot poorly but they rebounded 44% of their misses, which kept them in the game early. It was very important. The first half offense seemed to work pretty well at times. Cincinnati was very reliant on the 3 pointer. They made 6 in that half. 18 of their 31 points were off the 3 ball. You don't live by it though. The Cats didn't make another the rest of the game.
Let's hit a couple more of the negatives. The defense was awful. Cincinnati let Louisville get out in transition to great success. Cincinnati let Louisville get 34% of their misses on the offensive glass. The Cards scored a majority of their points in the paint. They shot 48% for the game. UC had no answer for Peyton Siva's driving ability. This is where an injured Cash really hurt.
Inside, UC couldn't stop the Louisville bigs. Gorgui Dieng was 5-8, Chane Behanan 2-4 and Stephan Van Tresse was 2-2. Montrezl Harrell didn't shoot well, but had 6 rebounds, 3 offensive. Cheikh Mbodj blocked 5 shots, but the defense was not good at all.
Things changed when UC tied the score at 37 and Luke Hancock came in the game. He hit a jumper to break the tie. He hit a 3 to put Louisville up 4, he threw an alley oop the next trip to Chane Behanan that brought the house down. Cincinnati would get no closer.
The turnovers were really bad. Louisville had 12 steals. That means 9 offensive fouls, travels or throws out of bounds. Dan Cronin said there were 7 turnovers on inbound plays. That's horrific. Cincinnati had to spend 2 timeouts because they couldn't inbound the ball in the first half. Louisville has a great defense. They put the clamps on Cincinnati and UC couldn't shake free.
Finally, the officiating was god awful. One of the worst officiated game of the year. I don't know how there were only 24 free throws when it seemed everyone who drove to the basket was hammered. There were tons of pushes in the paint, tons of bumps that should have been called, tons of contact on shots where players went flying. Not to mention there were numerous travels that were uncalled. It was brutal.
UC is 20-10, 8-9 in the Big East. They have one more left before the tournament season begins. More on this one tomorrow.
Box score from SI. Photo from ESPN.com/Getty Images
CINCINNATI| MIN | REB (O/D) | AST | FG-A | FT-A | 3P-A | PF | ST | TO | BLK | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wright * | 0 | 2 (0/2) | 0 | 6-11 | 0-0 | 3-5 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 15 |
| Kilpatrick * | 0 | 5 (4/1) | 1 | 3-16 | 5-6 | 1-10 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 12 |
| Parker * | 0 | 4 (3/1) | 1 | 5-16 | 1-3 | 1-4 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 12 |
| Mbodj * | 0 | 4 (2/2) | 1 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| Rubles * | 0 | 9 (1/8) | 4 | 0-2 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 2 |
| Guyn | 0 | 0 (0/0) | 0 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Nyarsuk | 0 | 5 (2/3) | 0 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Gaines | 0 | 1 (1/0) | 0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Sanders | 0 | 3 (1/2) | 2 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Thomas | 0 | 0 (0/0) | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 0 | 33 (14/19) | 9 | 18-52 | 9-13 | 6-21 | 15 | 4 | 20 | 6 | 51 |
| 34.6% | 69.2% | 28.6% | |||||||||
| * Starters | |||||||||||
LOUISVILLE| MIN | REB (O/D) | AST | FG-A | FT-A | 3P-A | PF | ST | TO | BLK | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smith * | 0 | 3 (1/2) | 1 | 6-14 | 6-8 | 0-2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 18 |
| Dieng * | 0 | 10 (3/7) | 1 | 5-8 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 11 |
| Siva * | 0 | 2 (0/2) | 4 | 5-13 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 11 |
| Behanan * | 0 | 0 (0/0) | 1 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Blackshear* | 0 | 3 (0/3) | 1 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Hancock | 0 | 3 (1/2) | 2 | 3-4 | 0-0 | 2-3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Ware | 0 | 1 (0/1) | 0 | 2-7 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Van Treese | 0 | 4 (3/1) | 0 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Harrell | 0 | 5 (3/2) | 0 | 1-5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| TOTAL | 0 | 31 (11/20) | 10 | 28-58 | 8-11 | 3-9 | 13 | 12 | 9 | 4 | 67 |
| 48.3% | 72.7% | 33.3% | |||||||||
| * Starters | |||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | T | |
| CINCINNATI (20-10) | 31 | 20 | 51 |
| LOUISVILLE (25-5) | 35 | 32 | 67 |
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