Welcome to Bearcats Blog in 2011. As you can see, Bloguin hooked me up with a fancy new look that’s not really new, but it’s fancy. The font as I write this is different, and if it’s different on the posts from now on, you know why. What’s also different is this game recap. Like many of you, I spent my New Year’s Eve doing other things besides watching a basketball game that started at 8. I did have the good mind to DVR the game. That brings me to how this is different. I haven’t actually watched the game yet. That means this game recap is going to be like a live diary of the action. It may sound confusing if you are kinda dumb, but it’s not. Let’s get to it.
We come to the action with the score 7-5 Cincinnati with 17 minutes left. A quick trip to ESPN shows that Herb Pope made a jumper, Rashad Bishop made a 3, Yancy Gates made a 2, Jeff Robinson hit a 3, and Ibrahima Thomas had a dunk. We come in to Dion Dixon scoring a lay up from the left baseline on a nice look by Bishop. Dixon drills the free throw. This might be a little wordier than normal, since I’ll probably do more possession by possession stuff. Bad possession by Cash. First he reaches on a lose ball and draws a foul, and Theodore blows by him for a lay up. Bishop comes back with a 3. Cash forces a loose ball on the press, and then Wilks another, but it goes out of bounds. We go into the under 16 with a 13-7 UC lead.
This may be harder than I thought. Herb Pope has a nice drive and dish for a Robinson jumper. Did you know Pope was clinically dead this offseason? Glad to see him back. Dixon misses a 3 horribly for UC. He said on twitter he found the problem with his shot, and I hope so. Theodore throws the ball away for SH. Cash loses the ball on a high screen. Theodore drops back to Keon Lawrence, who is fouled by Wilks. He makes 1 of 2. Token pressure by the Hall. Wilks fouled on a jump step. UC shouldn’t be ranked by the way. If this was Seton Hall who played this schedule, you would not think they should be ranked. Bishop stripped by Lawrence, and a break away lay up for Lawrence. 13-12. Bishop with an airball. He’s probably getting pulled. SH 3 is long. Dixon misses an open 3, Bishop misses a put back, SH to the other end. Missed shot, Wilks board. I like this UC lineup. As I type that, Wilks in to Gates for a dunk. Nice pass fake fooled the zone. Terrible zone rotation by UC leads to a wide open 3 for Lawrence to tie the score. Kilpatrick has a 3 rim out, but Wilks puts it back softly. Probably could have dunked it, he was worried about a goaltend. UC turns the ball over, Theodore takes it himself for a lay up. Another tie. Davis with a step back, and a fake inside. Pass to Kilpatrick, who is fouled. Under 12 with a tie score.
Out of the break, SK hits one of 2. Offensive foul on white dude on the Hall. The UC defender was way under the basket, but clearly a charge. That’s 2. Kilpatrick beats the zone inside, drops for a Thomas dunk. Nice. Cash doesn’t guard the point on defense, he guarded the 3. Theodore strips Kilpatrick, gets it back on the break, and misses. Rebounding foul on Thomas. UC in a half zone, half man, but all foul as Lawrence scores inside on Jackson. Lawrence ties it. Jackson is a foul magnet. Cash with a crossover and a shot high off the glass for the Cats. Cash steals a bad pass by the big, and bricks a 3 on the other end. I like Lawrence’s game. Poly throws the ball away when he thought a guy was going to cut. Hall goes zone as they are wont to do. Wilks turns it over. Fuquan Edwin had the steal, and drills a 3 from Lawrence. Cash throws a lazy pass that’s deflected out. It’s 23-22 Hall by the way. Wilks with another turnover as he had the ball at the foul line and jumped when no one was inside. Brick by SH, UC misses inside, as a Bishop shot was short. Pick and roll draws a foul, as Wilks tried to block the shot of a guy on the roll. Under 8 timeout. 23-22 Hall.
Dude on the Hall makes 1 of 2. Gates misses an elbow jumper for UC. Gates was shooting that no matter what, and Len Elmore notes it. Edwin misses as UC zones up. Ball in to Gates, and he’s hacked as SH tried to double. 6:17 left. No pausing by me. I fast forward all timeouts and free throws. Wild lay up attempt by Dixon off the inbound, tip by Gates ties the score at 24. UC guards a screen and roll well. 3 missed. Dixon drives inside and misses another close shot. Thomas fouls Pope on the rebound. Thomas stays in with 2. Theodore long on a jumper, SK rebounds. Those are my initials too. Thomas gets an offensive rebound. UC has 15 rebounds at this point. Poor pass inside, and Pope ties up Gates. That would have been Pope’s 3rd if they called one. Bishop hits a jumper over Theodore. Bishop had him posted, nice look by Dixon. That’s why he’s my best friend. 8 for Bishop. Bishop is bleeding from his nose. That takes us to the media break. 26-24.
Edwin short arms a good look from 3 as we come out of the timeout. Kilpatrick short on a floater in the lane, and a rebounding foul or something. Kilpatrick made a nice cut from the wing while Wilks had the ball on the baseline. I guess it was a shooting foul since Kilpatrick is shooting. He drilled them both. Lawrence back for the Hall. UC extending pressure with Theodore out. Pope airballs a free throw line jumper. Bad shot. Uc had Thomas open, but Davis didn’t see him. Ball swung the other way, and Kilpatrick drills a 3. Timeout SH. UC up by 7. A little over 2 minutes left. Pope drives from the baseline and draws a foul on Gates, who was practically hugging him while trying to block his shot. Pope hit them both. Great pass through the middle of the zone by Dixon for another Thomas dunk. Theodore came back in. Kilpatrick fouls because his man had a clear path to the rim. Poly makes them both. UC takes their use it or lose it. Gates ends up with the ball high on the left wing, dumps for Thomas, who has it knocked away. Short shot clock. Dixon airballs a 3, but Thomas puts it back with an awkward turnaround before the shot clock ends. SH relaxed on the airball. Kick ball gets Thomas out of the game to a nice hand. 8-6 for Ibby. Theodore drives to the rim and draws a foul on Dixon. Kilpatrick misses a wild drive to the rim. 3 second difference between the shot clock and game clock. Elmore thinks that was a 2 for 1, but no way. Sean thought he had buckets. UC goes zone. Gates a volleyball block on Poly. Kilpatrick to Cash at the buzzer….not even close. UC goes into the locker room up 35-29. They looked good at times, and not great at others. That cocksucker Miles Simon did halftime. Sorry for those of you who had to watch.
SH has the ball to start the half. Pope wasn’t looking for the ball. Cash a steal and Thomas a dunk. The Hall just not paying attention. 3 pointer missed. For some reason, Lawrence isn’t on the floor for SH. Theodore dribbles too much. Bishop blows by his man, and draws a foul. Cash can’t get the ball in, timeout. Cash misses a 3 when UC comes back. Thomas gets the board. He gets the ball inside and hits another awkward turnaround. Another miss by SH. UC up 10. Cash misses a lay up. Another bricked 3 by the Hall. Thomas misses a 3. UC kinda took that possession off. Lots of standing. Pope tries a 3 and misses. Thomas is pushed on the rebound. Bishop tries to drive, nothing there, handoff to Cash. And a foul on Lawrence, who checked in. Gates misses the worst shot in basketball, a jumper with his foot on the line. The Hall gets an easy layup with nice passing. Bishop misses from the elbow on a curl. Break for the Hall, Lawrence scores. UC goes to Gates, he jumps and throws it away. Other end, Theodore loses the ball. No whistle and it’s UC’s ball. Under 16.
Mick Cronin was kinda fat as an assistant. Quick whistle as UC brings the ball up. Larry Davis a 3 pointer. A little rub by Thomas on the handoff helped. Gates leans into Pope on a jumper and that’s #2. Pope misses both. Bishop misses a runner for UC. SH is playing kinda slow. Lawrence pretty much travelled, but a foul is called on Davis. Lawrence throws the ball away, Bishop recovers it. Davis short coming off a screen. He threw up a weird looking 1 hander in the lane. UC went zone and got totally lost. Edwin open in the corner and nails it. 42-36 UC. UC standing around as SH zones. 3 second violation on UC. Wasted possession. Theodore can’t get a lay up to fall. Bishop drives, nearly throws it away, Wilks actually throws it away for a SH lay up. 4 point game with 12 to go. No one moving again. Davis travels. Well, he was moving. Under 12.
Pope too strong with a turner in the lane. Bishop misses a 3 for UC. Didn’t like that lok. Polynice throws it away inside, but UC batted it out of bounds. High screen for Theodore, and his shot rims out. Kilpatrick cuts into the lane on a pass from Wright, and draws a foul. That’s 4 on the white dude. Brick, make for Sean. He needs to pick up the foul shooting. Robinson misses an open 3, Cash boards. Kilpatrick goes strong to the rim again, scores and is fouled. Missed again. Lead up to 7. Lawrence takes Cash to the rim, and draws a foul on Ibby. His lay up didn’t fall. He hit them both. Dixon nails an open jumper for UC. His first points in a long, long time. 5 assists though. Theodore draws another foul on Ibby. That’s 4. He hits 1 of 2. Bishop dumps to Gates. Strong move to the basket, and Gates is fouled. He hits 1 of 2, but on the miss, Pope draws his 4th. That’s 8 on the Pirates, so UC is in the bonus. Wilks at the line. He of all people makes them both. 9 point lead. The crowd is loud. Tough D by the Cats. Lawrence dribbles off his foot. Timeout Seton Hall. Token pressure out of the break. Easily broken. UC screens for Dixon. Dion draws a foul on a shot attempt in the lane. He hits them both for a double digit lead. Nice pass by Theodore to Pope, Wilks fouls to stop a dunk. Under 8 timeout.
7:44 on the clock as Herb Pope drills them both. UC quickly breaks the pressure, and Kilpatrick hits a jumper a foot inside the arc. 11 for Kilpatrick. Pope drives wild, gets his pass or shot blocked by Gates, gets it back and travels. That could have been a charge. Dixon, Davis, Bishop, Wilks and Gates on the floor. Kickout to Davis for 3, missed. Wild drive by Theodore, Davis rebounds. Crowd is applauding the effort on D. Dixon takes a terrible shot, and the ball goes off Davis’ foot. 5:40 to go. Pope fakes Gates into the air, and gets to the line. Pope hits 1 of 2. The announcers talk about how it seems Gates doesn’t want the ball. And he really doesn’t seem to post up. 3 pointer by Kilpatrick. Steal by Gates at halfcourt, pass up ahead to Dixon for a lay up around a defender. The lead is 15, 59-44. Timeout Pirates. Pope gets the ball, and draws another foul on Gates. He’s demanding the ball on Yancy. Pope hits both. Gates answers by taking the ball from the top of the key to in the lane on Pope and hitting a j in his face. Quick timeout by Mick to get Gates out on D. UC in zone. Pope again goes aggressive, and Thomas fouls out. 3:37 left, 61-46.
Pope hits them both again. Pope gets a steal as Davis threw a bad cross court pass. Pope misses a spinning lay up, gets the board, and Wilks hits it out of his hands. Pope doubled this time, and kicks it out. Lawrence to Pope, and stripped. Dixon running the point here in crunch time. UC with the defensive line up. Bishop off a curl from the elbow to the left block and fouled. UC has run that play a whole lot. Bishop hits both free throws because he doesn’t miss. Quick miss by Lawrence, and he fouls. Cash hits them both for a 17 point lead. 3 pointer for SH. 2 minutes left. Dude who made that was 3-14. UC running clock. Biggie McClain getting minutes. Cash to Wilks, who leaked out to the perimeter, for 3. Edwin miss. Dixon walks the ball up the floor. 1 minute left. Cash fouled, and makes both. That’s the 70. Another turnover by the Pirates. Cash takes the air out of the ball. Bishop misses a 3 with the shot clock running out, which leads to an Edwin fast break lay up for the 53. UC is 14-0 for the first time since 1998-99, with a nice 70-53 win.
Cincinnati was 24-51, 47% for the game. They were 6-20 from 3, which is pretty awful and one of the worst performances of the season. They were 16-20 at the stripe. UC had 33 rebounds, 7 offensive, 5 steals and 3 blocks. UC had 15 assists and 12 turnovers. Sean Kilpatrick was the star of the game on offense. He had 14 points on 4-6 shooting, but went 4-7 at the free throw line. Sean had 6 rebounds. He did all that in 18 minutes. Ibrahima Thomas added a nice 12-9 performance. He had 4 offensive rebounds. Rashad Bishop had 10-4, Yancy Gates 9-6-2 blocks, Dion Dixon 9-6 assists, Darnell Wilks 7, Cashmere Wright 6-4 assists-2 steals, and Larry Davis 3.
Seton Hall was 15-45, 33%. The Pirates were 5-14 from 3, and 18-25 at the foul line. They had 23 rebounds, 4 offensive. They had 9 steals, 9 assists and 14 turnovers. Keon Lawrence led the way for the Pirates with 15-6-3 assists-2 steals, Herb Pope 10-4-3 assists, Fuquan Edwin 10, Jordan Theodore 7-3 steals, Patrik Auda, the white guy referenced above, 4, and Eniel Polynice 2.
This was a great defensive effort from the Cats. The offense was very herky jerky, but the defense was on Seton Hall practically all night. They got to Lawrence and shut him down the second half. They forced the guards into turnovers, and the bigs did a great job inside. UC dared Seton Hall to beat them with shots, and Seton Hall doesn’t have any shooters. UC fouled a bit much for my tastes. We did find out what happens if Gates and Thomas get in foul trouble. The minutes go to Darnell Wilks. He’s taken the top forward reserve spot and won’t give it up. UC will roll with him at the 4 every day of the week. I don’t blame Mick.
I hope this went as well as the game did. The picture up top is by the AP. This is also a ton of words, so I’m going to end it now. Hope your 2011 has started well friends. Look for a lot about Xavier coming up. Beat X.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
