Big East Sports Blog

The tandem of Deonta Vaughn and John Williams, plus some stingy last second defense, helped Cincinnati prevail over Louisville 58-57 on New Year’s Day to  jump-start conference play in the Big East.

Vaughn and Williams scored 13 points apiece and Marvin Gentry added 10 points for the Bearcats, who shot 47 percent from the field against the Cardinals.  The Bearcats gave the Cardinals problems from beyond the arc as well, shooting 57 percent on 8-of-14 attempts. 

For Louisville, Jerry Smith led the way with 17 points and David Padgett returned to action for the Cardinals, scoring 13 and grabbing four boards.  Padgett had been sidelined since Nov.18th with a fractured kneecap.

Louisville had a chance to win the game in the final seconds, however, Edgar Sosa had his shot partially blocked and Terrence Williams’ tip-in attempt rimed out as the buzzer sounded.  Louisville drops their first conference game (9-4, 0-1) and had their four-game win streak snapped.

It was a nip-and-tuck contest throughout the entire second half, with the largest lead for either team being six points.  Padgett gave Louisville the lead 57-56 with just under two minutes to play, but Vaughn put Cincinnati right back in front 58-57 after sinking two free throws.  Terrence Williams missed a jump shot with about 40 seconds left and the Bearcats looked to ice this one, but Vaughn had the ball stolen away on an attempt to get to the rim and the Cardinals had one last gasp to pull out the victory.  The jumper by Sosa fell short, as did the put-back attempt by Williams and the Bearcats spoiled the start of 2008 for Louisville.

Tough start for Louisville on the first day of 2008.  They get a home game against a big-time rival, not to mention an emotional lift with the return of Padgett, who a few months back looked as if he were done for the year.  It seems as if this could be a tell-tale sign of things to come for Louisville in the conference if they don’t start playing with a lot more consistency.  Earl Clark and Terrence Williams have largely been the focal points so far this season.  The sophomore slump Edgar Sosa is in has to be a great concern for Rick Pitino.  The health of Padgett and Juan Palacios will make or break how successful, or unsuccessful the Cardinals will be, as well the maturation process of Derrick Caracter.

Up next for the Cardinals, Rick Pitino and company will venture into his old stomping ground, with a Saturday afternoon match-up at Kentucky looming at 4 p.m.  Cincinnati will aim for their third consecutive win on Saturday when they’ll face off against St. John’s at 6 p.m.

Jamual Warren scored six of his 13 points in the last few minutes of the game to lift Cincinnati past Miami-Ohio 56-50 on Saturday night.  All six of the points Warren scored came from three-point range to give the Bearcats bragging rights in the state of Ohio.  The win does two things for Cincinnati: it snaps a five game losing streak and marks the 10th straight win for the Bearcats over the Redhawks.

Deonta Vaughn, Cincinnati’s leading scorer, paced the way once again for the Bearcats scoring 17 points.  Vaughn connected on five of seven free throw attempts in the finals minutes to help seal the deal for Cincinnati.

Cincinnati used an 8-2 run at the end of the first half to led 26-20.  The Redhawks were led by Tyler Dierker with 18 points and Tim Pollitz added a double-double, scoring 15 and grabbing 10 boards.  As leading scorer Michael Bramos goes, so do the Redhawks, but it was tough sledding for Bramos. Miami -Ohio’s leading scorer, Bramos entered the contest averaging almost 18 points per game, but managed only two points on 1-of-11 shooting.

The last victory Miami-Ohio notched in the series was in 1990.  Cincinnati leads the all-time rivalry 92-52.  The Bearcats will ring in 2008 on New Year’s Day, Jan. 1st when they host Louisville. 

Cincinnati tried to complete the weekend sweep, but the Wolfpack spoiled their plans.  On Saturday night, the Cincinnati football team was victorious in the Papajohns.com Bowl, but their basketball team couldn’t follow suit, as the Wolfpack defeated the Bearcats 85-77 on Sunday night.

Brandon Costner led the way offensively for the Wolfpack, scoring 20 points, grabbing six rebounds and dishing out three assists. 

The Bearcats trailed at halftime 38-29, but fought hard in the second half, cutting a Wolfpack lead from ten to three, 70-67 with three and a half minutes to go.  But two easy baskets ( a dunk and a layup) helped propel the Wolfpack past the Bearcats.

Deonta Vaughn scored a team-high 19 points for Cincinnati and John Williamson added 13 points.  This was the first time in 24 years Cincinnati has made the trip to NC State. 

The Bearcats have had success against the ACC recently, winning seven of their last ten meetings against ACC schools.  The loss drops Cincinnati to 4-7 on the year and they remain winless on road at 0-4.

Cincinnati has not won since Nov. 26th, and they’ll have a six days of practice time before they’re next game, Saturday, Dec. 29th at 8 p.m. when they’ll return home to take on the Redhawks from Miami (OH).

The Bearcats used two words to ground Southern Miss in the Papajohns.com Bowl on Saturday night: Ben Mauk.

Mauk completed 30-of-52 passes for 334 yards and four touchdowns as No. 22 Cincinnati defeated Southern Miss 31-31 in the second annual Papajohns.com Bowl on Saturday. 

The win was Cincinnati’s 10th of the season, marking only the second time the Bearcats recorded 10 wins in a season, in school history.  The only other time Cincinnati previously won 10 games in a season was 1951.

Mauk was named the game’s most valuable player, becoming only the third quarterback to pass for over 3,000 yards at Cincinnati.  The loss for Southern Miss (7-6) was a tough pill to swallow.  It was the final game for head coach Jeff Bower guiding the Golden Griffins, after having spent 17 seasons at the helm at his alma mater.

Southern Miss started the bowl game off on a good note, taking an early 7-0 lead on a Jeremy Young 10-yard touchdown strike to Shawn Nelson.  Their early lead, however, would be short lived.

The Bearcats stormed back, scoring 21 unanswered points.  Two touchdown passes from Mauk to Dominick Goodman (14 yards, 5 yards) and a 29-yard pass to Earnest Jackson put Cincinnati on top 21-3.

Mauk essentially ended the game in the third quarter, putting the Bearcats up 28-14 with a 10-yard strike to Antwuan Giddens.

Jeremy Young finished the day 18-of-32, passing for 122 yards and 2 touchdowns, but he was intercepted three times, all three by Cincinnati’s DeAngelo Smith.  Damion Fletcher gashed the Bearcats run defense, rushing for 150 yards on 22 carries.  Entering the game, the Bearcats were holding their opponents to just over 100 yards rushing per game.

The Bearcats get the Big East off on the right foot in this bowl season.  Next up for the Big East, UConn will clash with Wake Forest in the Meineke Car Care Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 29th at 1 p.m.

If you haven’t seen him play yet, get a copy of their schedule and find out the next time they’ll be on national television.  If you haven’t heard of him yet, I urge you to clean out your ears.  Derrick Rose is becoming a house hold name.

Rose scored a career-high 26 points on Wednesday night, helping #2 Memphis knock off Cincinnati 79-69.  The Tigers improve to 9-0 for the first time since the 1985-86 season, while Cincinnati is off to their worst start in more than 20 years, at 4-6.

The Bearcats didn’t make this one easy on Memphis.  Cincinnati refused to go away, taking advantage of the Tigers’ stagnant and iffy offensive play.  Memphis also allowed the Bearcats to hang around with their poor showing from the free throw line, shooting 21-of-36, and wasting a plethora of opportunities to put the game away.  But it was Rose who put Memphis on his back and fueled them to their third straight win over Cincinnati.

Deonta Vaughn scored a team-high 20 points for the Bearcats in the loss and senior forward  John Williamson added 13 points.

Memphis opened the game on a torrid pace, scoring on seven of their first twelve possessions, and seemed poised to run and hide from Cincinnati, taking a 12-point lead at 26-14.  But thanks to Cincinnati’s man-to-man defense, shots came tougher to come by and Memphis couldn’t get any easy cracks at the basketball.  Memphis turned the ball over three times and missed two shots in the last five possessions heading into halftime, propelling Cincinnati to close the first half on an 11-1 run, trailing by one at 33-32.

Coming out of halftime, the freshman sensation Rose scored the first five points for Memphis, and the Bearcats lost all their momentum they built in the first half, missing on their first eight shots to start the second half.

Two technical fouls on Joey Dorsey and head coach John Calipari, coupled with four straight misses from the charity stripe, allowed the Bearcats to hang around.  They trailed Memphis 68-62, but Williamson missed a point-blank gimme dunk that would have cut the lead to four.  Instead, Rose put  his Superman cape back on, nailing a three-pointer with under two minutes to go that sealed the deal for Memphis.

The #2 Memphis Tigers will put their undefeated record on the line on Saturday, Dec. 22nd at noon when they host another unbeaten,  #4 Georgetown in a huge match-up, pitting two potential Final Four teams against each other.  The Hoyas will also enter the contest with an unblemished record at 8-0 after being idle for a week.  The Hoyas are coming off a 110-51 drubbing of Radford last Saturday.

Cincinnati will look to go back to the drawing-board and regroup.  They will try to snap their four-game skid on Sunday night, Dec. 23rd when they venture down Tobacco Road to take on North Carolina St.