Big East Sports Blog

Men’s Basketball Players of the Week honors were handed out on Monday, Jan.14th, as Deonta Vaughn was named Big East Player of the Week and DeJuan Blair was named Big East Rookie of the Week.

Vaughn helped Cincinnati to a 2-0 week for the Bearcats during games through Jan.13th.  Vaughn started the week dropping 29 points in a win over Syracuse 74-66 on Wednesday, Jan.9th, then followed up with a 25-point outing in an upset victory over Villanova this past Saturday 69-66.  Vaughn is averaging just under 23 points per game in the Big East action this season.

Freshman DeJuan Blair was named Big East Rookie of the Week for the third time this year after helping Pittsburgh to a 2-0 record as well this week.  Blair scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the 79-66 win over South Florida on Wednesday, Jan.9th, then dropped 20 points and pulled down 14 boards in the win over Seton Hall this past Saturday.  Blair shot close to 60 percent in both victories this week (58.8 percent) and he’s nearly averaging a double-double in his first season for Pittsburgh, scoring 12.2 points and grabbing 9.9 rebounds per game.

Deonta Vaughn dropped in 29 points to help Cincinnati defeat Syracuse 74-66 on Wednesday night, putting an end to the Orange’s six game winning streak.  20 of Vaughn’s 29 points came in the first half, as Syracuse was only able to muster 23 first half points.  Cincinnati has now won three of their last four games.

Cincinnati (7-8, 2-1) took a 35-23 lead into halftime, using a monstrous 21-4 run to close out first half action.  Before the run, Syracuse (12-4, 2-1) held the lead, 18-14.  Vaughn scored 12 straight points to give Cincy the lead 29-20 during their first-half late run.

Freshman Donte Green scored 25 points and pulled down 12 boards and sophomore Paul Harris added 20 points.  The duo combined for more than half of Syracuse’s point total, while shooting 52 percent.  The rest of the Syracuse squad combined to shoot a miserable 28 percent from the field.  Freshman point guard Jonny Flynn turned in a forgettable night, finishing with nine points on an awful 2-of-15 shooting.

Syracuse started the game off well, jumping out to a 14-5 lead, but a 14-4 spurt by the Bearcats put Cincinnati up 19-18 and the Bearcats never trailed again.  The closest Syracuse got was within six points late in the second half.

Syracuse will be on the road once again this Sunday when they travel to Morgantown to take on West Virginia at 2:30 p.m.  Cincinnati will aim for two in a row when they host Villanova on Saturday at 7 p.m.