PITTSBURGH —
There’s a certain tenacity required to play basketball at Cincinnati, one guard Cashmere Wright knows is difficult for opponents to duplicate in practice.
“The first 30 minutes we try to wear you out as much as you can,” Wright said. “The last 10 minutes, we want you to be as tired as possible. So, we just keep pushing, keep grinding ... we know most teams don’t play like we play.”
Pittsburgh certainly doesn’t, at least not yet.
Wright scored 18 points, Sean Kilpatrick added 16 and the 14th-ranked Bearcats bulled past the 24th-ranked Panthers 70-61 in a Big East opener on Monday.
The Bearcats (13-1, 1-0) bounced back from a loss to New Mexico last Thursday by dominating Pitt over the final 20 minutes. Cincinnati trailed by as much as eight early but used a 14-2 run midway through the second half to take control.
“We try to put game pressure on you and win the game in the last 10 minutes,” Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. “It was a tremendous effort by our guys on the defensive end.”
Talib Zanna led Pitt (12-2, 0-1) with 16 points. Lamar Patterson had 13 points, four rebounds and four assists but the Panthers missed all 10 of their 3-point attempts as their eight-game winning streak ended with a thud.
“We got totally outplayed in the second half,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “It’s something that we usually don’t do. Year after year, we seem to come out in the second half and finish what we started. Give credit to Cincinnati.”
Pitt had a chance to get within a point with 1:27 to play, but Tray Woodall missed the front end of a one-and-one and Cincinnati made its free throws the rest of the way.
Cincinnati outrebounded the Panthers 37-32, including a pair of huge offensive boards with around 3 minutes left that allowed the Bearcats to drain the clock. Cincinnati turned the reprieves into David Nyarsuk’s dunk that pushed its advantage to 62-55.
“It was a big-time play by the big man,” Wright said.
Pitt, however, wasn’t quite done. Zanna hit a layup and was fouled. He missed the ensuing free throw but Patterson slipped into the lane for the stickback to get Pitt within three. The Bearcats turned it over on the inbounds and Woodall went to the line after getting tackled by Cincinnati’s Cheikh Mbodj.
Woodall, who had issues with foul trouble in the first half and the physical play by the Bearcats in the second, clanged his free throw and Kilpatrick grabbed the board. Cincinnati went 8 of 10 at the line over the final 70 seconds to put it away.
“It was a big game because we know it’s hard to lose two games and stay where we wanted to be,” Wright said. “In order to stay in those top-tier teams, we’ve got to win games on the road to show we’re a big-time team.”
It wasn’t quite the start to their final Big East season Pitt envisioned. The Panthers were hoping to restore some luster to the program after a disappointing 2011-12 in which they missed the NCAA tournament.
It didn’t happen against the Bearcats. Playing for the first time in eight days following a soft nonconference schedule that offered little resistance, Pitt looked rattled while trying to deal with Cincinnati’s constantly swarming defense.
“After you have those long breaks, it’s kind of hard to come back and play to your full potential,” Wright said. “You get tired. You haven’t played a game in so long, it’s hard to come back and just go all out.”
Maybe, though the Panthers looked comfortable while leading throughout a sometimes ugly first half that served as a preview of the two-month grind that awaits in conference play.
Cincinnati, however, hung around despite missing 10 of its first 11 shots thanks to a defense that kept getting in passing lanes and getting under the Panthers’ skin. Then again, the Bearcats are no stranger to struggling early. They’ve done it so often this season it hardly registered.
“We knew shots (were) going to end up falling anyway,” Kilpatrick said. “Shots have been like that the past couple games. Once you just focus on defense and rebounding, everything will pan out.”
College
Related Photos
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Cincinnati’s Sean Kilpatrick shoots against Pittsburgh’s Cameron Wright in the second half of Monday’s game at Petersen Events Center. The game was the Big East Conference opener for both teams. Keith Srakocic
Discussion
Strong second half lifts Cincinnati over Pitt
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