American Stories – No. 8 Cincinnati Overcomes Stiff Test from Houston

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky.—Mick Cronin’s University of Cincinnati team faced its moment of truth last night.

The eighth-ranked Bearcats had been untouchable and unbeatable at their home away from home, the BB&T Arena on the campus of Northern Kentucky University. They had won by an average of 29 points in three previous home, conference games.

But they found themselves mired in a 33-15 deficit with 7:34 to play in the first half of their American Athletic Conference game against Houston before a near-sellout crowd of 8,885.

The Cougars had shocked Cincinnati early with their physicality on defense and the aggressive way they attacked the goal. They were lighting it up from the three-point line. “They came out hitting on all cylinders,” Cronin said. “Give our kids credit.  Our home crowd was great. Big sixth man. They’ve been a little spoiled. They got a game tonight.”

Cincinnati (20-2, 9-0 American), to its credit, never flinched under pressure.

The Bearcats dug their way out of a hole and won going away, scoring 43 points in the second half of an 80-70 victory over an NCAA tournament caliber team in Houston that had just defeated then-No. 7 Wichita State, 73-58, in Texas.  This was the 13^th straight win for UC, which is now 9-0 in the American. It marked the eighth consecutive year the Bearcats have reached 20 victories. The Bearcats extended their home court winning streak to 38 games, the longest active streak in Division I.

Cincinnati has a history of being an excellent defensive team under Cronin. The Bearcats went into this game ranked second in the country in scoring defense and giving up just 56.2 points.

“We weren’t going to win this game if we scored 65 points,” Cronin admitted. “Whenever you can weather a storm when guys like Armoni Brooks and Corey Davis Jr. are lighting it up from three (9-for-16), you have to feel fortunate.

“The question I had all season was, when the time comes, are we going to be able to take our game to another level. Are we going to be able to do that? And we did that tonight.”

The last time Cincinnati had this kind of offensive firepower was 2012, when the Bearcats advanced to the Sweet 16 before losing to their bitter rival Ohio State in Newark.

This Cincinnati team has four dependable players — forwards Kyle Washington and Gary Clark and guards Jacob Evans III and Jarron Cumberland — who can take over a game offensively at any time.

This time it was Washington, a 6-9 redshirt senior and the one-time North Carolina State transfer; and Cumberland, who stepped up when Clark, the Bearcats’ MVP, went to the bench with four fouls and Cincinnati clinging to a 60-56 lead with 8:05 to play. Washington, who finished 19 points and 5 rebounds on 6 of 8 shooting, made one of his three three-point goals and two free throws; and Cumberland, a 6-5 sophomore who finished with 15 points, scored on tip in and added six free throws as the Bearcats expanded the lead to 74-61 with 3:41 to play.

“It’s an arduous task sometimes,” Washington said. ‘’But like I’ve been saying all year, this team is the closest team I’ve been on in terms of cohesiveness. We all love each other, for real. It makes it so much easier when we have a situation like that, when we’re together and we’re connected. We said, you know, we’re in a tough spot but we’ve got to fight through it.

“I just want step up and be there for my teammates.”

Evans finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Clark had 14 points and 10 rebounds, his ninth double-double of the year. The Bearcats committed just one turnover in the final 30 minutes. And they limited Houston guard Rob Gray — the league’s leading scorer and a player Cronin compared to Sean Kilpatrick, UC’s last first team All-American in 2014 — to just 4 for 15 shooting and nine points.

“Players win games,’’ Cronin said. “How good are you? You are only as good as your players. You can only coach them up so much. The players won this game. They had to put the ball in the basket, taking care of the ball, dealing with Houston’s physicality, sharing the ball.  The great teams put the ball in the basket.”

There is an unselfishness about this team that fueled the largest winning rally in 12 UC seasons under Cronin. The previous biggest comeback occurred in Cronin’s first year when the Bearcats rallied from 17 points down to defeat West Virginia, 96-83, in overtime in 2007.

If the momentum continues, Cincinnati should wind up with high seed in the NCAA Tournament. But Cronin doesn’t want to get ahead of himself. Cincinnati has two games left with Wichita State and has a return trip to Houston (16-5, 6-3 American), a dangerous team that has three physical big men who can make it difficult to get shots inside when they double the ball inside and has the luxury of playing Gray at the point, allowing coach Kelvin Sampson to use pure deep shooters like Brooks and Davis at the wings.

“I think Houston is as good as anybody,” Cronin said. “I thought coming in, they could easily be 19-1. Now, having said that, they lost close games to LSU and Drexel and they had an ice storm the day when they had to fly to Tulane and they arrive two hours before game time. And Tulane made some unbelievable shots.

“They have a lot of new players — Brooks, Corey Davis Jr. — and guys like Devin Davis, who was hurt last year. So, they’re getting better. It’s not a shock, their administration is extremely committed with the new building, and Kelvin Sampson is the coach. We still got to go back there. I’m sure they’re going to be ready for us.”

The final score did not reflect the competitive nature of this intense game. “It might have been a 10-point game, but it felt like a one-point win,” Cronin said.