UC Bearcats fall to Louisville, 67-51
Mar. 4, 2013 9:11 PM
Cincinnati guard Cashmere Wright and forward Titus Rubles (front) fight for a loose ball against Louisville guard Russ Smith during the second half. / The Enquirer/Joseph Fuqua II
Written by
Bill Koch
Mick Cronin’s worst fears came true Monday night.
The University of Cincinnati coach had warned Sunday that if the Bearcats turned the ball over frequently against Louisville, which ranks third nationally in turnover margin, it would be like a “shark-feeding party for 22,000 people.”
That’s exactly what happened.
The Bearcats committed a season-high 22 turnovers and the Cardinals ran away with a 67-51 victory at the KFC Yum! Center, while outscoring UC, 32-20, in the second half.
Despite the flurry of turnovers, UC (20-10, 8-9 in the Big East) played the Cardinals even until the 15:56 mark of the second half before Louisville emphatically put the game away. The Bearcats have lost six of their last eight games.
No. 8 Louisville (25-5, 13-4) has won six in a row and nine of its last 10 and presented Rick Pitino with his 300th victory in 12 years as the Cardinals’ head coach.
Cashmere Wright led UC with 15 points. Russ Smith led Louisville with 18.
The Bearcats, who trailed by four at halftime, used a zone defense to start the second half and cut off the penetration by the Cardinals’ guards, who did so much damage in the first half. With Louisville’s offense stalled, UC pulled even at 37-37 with 15:56 remaining.
No sooner did the Bearcats tie the score than the Cardinals went on a 14-3 run to take a 51-40 lead on Kevin Ware’s transition dunk with 9:36 left.
Turnovers continued to plague UC, which matched its season high of 19 with nine and a half minutes left. Junior forward Titus Rubles committed nine turnovers, falling two short of the school record of 11 set by Dean Foster in 1965-66.
Once the Cardinals seized the lead this time, they did not let up, using their transition game to take a 60-44 lead on a Ware layup. At that point, they had outscored UC, 23-7, since the score was tied at 37-37.
UC cut the deficit to 13 points with 3:30 remaining but never really made a serious run at the Cardinals again.
The Bearcats committed 12 turnovers in the first half, which matched their season average for an entire game, but managed to stay close. After trailing by as many as seven, they pulled to within one point on Ge’Lawn Guyn’s 3-pointer with 11 seconds remaining in the first half, but Peyton Siva buried a three for the Cardinals just before the horn went off to give Louisville a 35-31 halftime lead.
UC had a difficult time dealing with the quickness of Cardinal guards Siva and Russ Smith, with Siva frequently blowing past the Bearcats’ defense for layups. Siva scored 11 in the first half. Smith scored 10.
The Bearcats made 6 of 14 shots from 3-point range in the first half. Wright, who left the game with 36.5 seconds left in the half favoring his left shoulder, broke out of his shooting slump by making three of four from long range. He returned to start the second half.
UC has one regular-season game remaining on Saturday at Fifth Third Arena before heading to New York for the Big East tournament next week.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130...eakingnews