UC Prevails

By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com March 4, 2006 CINCINNATI – Cincinnati was looking for a red-letter performance on its self-designated “Ring of Red” game against No. 16-rated West Virginia on Saturday afternoon, and with former coach Bobby Huggins in the stands, the Bearcats got it. The Bearcats shot 53.7 percent from the floor and was able to hold on to defeat the Mountaineers, 78-75 at Fifth Third Arena on Senior Day. West Virginia's J.D. Collins (1) tries to defend University of Cincinnati's Jihad Muhammad in the first half of their college basketball game in Cincinnati, Saturday, March 4, 2006. AP photo/Tom Uhflman UC seniors Eric Hicks and James White went out in style, combining to score 33 points and hitting 12 of 20 field-goal attempts to boost Cincinnati’s record to 19-11, 8-8 and perhaps remove them from the NCAA tournament bubble. “I’m so proud of our group,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “We have played in eight venues – Syracuse, Villanova, UCLA – this one with the electricity in the air and what was at stake … it was like playing a UCLA in the first round of the NCAA tournament with that type of enthusiasm.” The last time these two teams played in Morgantown back on Feb. 4, Cincinnati committed 18 turnovers and shot just 41.7 percent for the game in a 66-57 loss. Today, Cincinnati did a much better job against West Virginia’s defense turning the basketball over just seven times. After an 8-2 Bearcat start, West Virginia fought back and was able to take a 16-12 lead on a Frank Young 3 from the corner. The Mountaineers (20-9, 11-5) led 21-18 before Cincinnati went on a 10-0 run to make it 28-21 on a pair of White free throws. A Hicks dunk off a feed from guard Devan Downey gave Cincinnati a 10-point, 33-23 lead with 3:16 left in the first half and forced Beilein to call time out. West Virginia recovered after the break with a Patrick Beilein 3, and another triple by Gansey pulled the Mountaineers to within six, 35-29. Cincinnati led at halftime, 37-31. The Bearcats built its biggest lead of the game at 13, 48-35, on a Jihad Muhammad 3 and led by 12 until Pittsnogle was able to muscle up a shot that went in with Cedric McGowan hanging on his arm at 15:18. After the 15-minute television timeout, Pittsnogle converted the three-point play to pull the Mountaineers to within nine, 50-41. Cincinnati led by nine, 60-51, when five straight West Virginia points – a 3 from Gansey and a fade away in the paint from Young -- made it a four-point game. Back to back 3s from Gansey pulled West Virginia to within two, 66-64, and later a big 3 by Beilein just ahead of the two-minute timeout kept West Virginia to within a basket. Following the break, the Mountaineers had two opportunities to either tie the game with a 2 or take the lead with a 3, but were unable to cash in. Gansey was whistled for a questionable traveling violation on a tough, twisting baseline jumper that wound up going in with 1:51 remaining. The next time down the floor, Young had a short jumper over 5-foot-11-inch Muhammad rim out with 1:08 on the clock. “He landed on two and stepped with one, that’s what I saw (on the Gansey travel call),” Beilein said. “That was a huge play in the game.” Another key moment in the game came with 25.8 seconds left when West Virginia was unable to secure a rebound off a missed shot from the corner. Hicks jumped over Beilein to deflect the basketball to Chad Moore. Hicks was eventually fouled on the play with 25 seconds left and made 1 of 2 from the line to give Cincinnati a 76-73 lead. With plenty of time to get a good look at a 3 to tie the game, Pittsnogle tried a tough fade away 3 from well beyond the top of the key that Moore was able to track down. Moore missed the free throw at the other end, giving West Virginia another chance to tie the game with three seconds left. Cincinnati coach Andy Kennedy instructed his team to foul, placing Pittsnogle on the line with two seconds remaining. Pittsnogle made the first try and while attempting to miss the second one, the ball caromed off the backboard and into the basket. That afforded Cincinnati the opportunity to inbound the basketball and get back to the free throw line or run out the clock. After a West Virginia foul with 1.3 seconds remaining, Downey made both free throws on the other end just ahead of Young’s desperation heave from near mid-court. Muhammad added 17 and Downey contributed 16 for Cincinnati, which finished the game 13 of 15 from the free throw line and 7 of 17 from 3-point distance. “They only shot 53 percent but I felt like they shot 80 percent,” Beilein said. “We made them make tough shots off the dribble. They have incredible quickness and we just had trouble staying in front of them -- zone, man, it didn’t make a difference.” Pittsnogle led all scorers with 23 points on 9 of 17 shooting. Gansey played a strong second half and finished with 20 points on 7 of 9 shooting. Young added 13 after scoring just 5 points in his last three games. “(Mike) has got to be more assertive and he’s got to have confidence in his play out there,” Beilein said. “Mike Gansey is a much better player than he’s played in some games and we keep telling him that. He showed that in the second half.” West Virginia made 29 of 57 from the floor for 50.9 percent and was 12 of 28 from behind the 3-point arc for 42.9 percent. “We scored 75 points against a great defensive team without getting to the foul line a great deal,” Beilein said. “It’s a loss right now and you don’t treat it like a win, but you just say going into the tournament that I think this is actually some good momentum.” The Mountaineers have four days off before playing the winner of Wednesday’s No. 6-11-seeded game in the Big East tournament on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden in New York. The contest will tip off at 9 pm and will be televised by ESPN.