Cincinnati has rebounded quite well in getting comfortable at the
Big East tournament.
The 11th-seeded Bearcats again used a huge advantage on the
boards to beat sixth-seeded Louisville 69-66 on Wednesday night to
advance to the quarterfinals. They are the only team to play in the
opening round still playing, and it was rebounding that keyed both
close wins.
"We can rebound the ball when we get shots off," Cincinnati
coach Mick Cronin said. "When we get the ball in the paint, we get
it on the rim, we can rebound the ball."
The Bearcats (18-14) outrebounded Rutgers 49-31 in their
69-68 victory Tuesday night.
The numbers were even more impressive against the defending
champion Cardinals (20-12). The Bearcats outrebounded Louisville
54-33, including 28-9 on the offensive end.
"The point of emphasis tonight was to rebound the
basketball," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "We rebound, we
win. We knew that. We didn't, we lost. We go home early. Wasted a
lot of boosters' money."
Even with the decided advantage in corralling missed shots,
the game still came to two big moments for senior Deonta Vaughn.
He made two free throws with 5.9 seconds left to make the
score 69-66. Then he made the game-saving strip of Edgar Sosa a
bout 30 feet from the basket just before the buzzer.
"If you can believe it, we called time out to foul him at
half court," Cronin said. "Deonta claims he was fouling him the
whole time. I was scared he was finally going to foul him when the
shot attempt went up. I was going to be the laughingstock
nationally.
"The game plan was to foul him. He couldn't get that shot
off. I've seen him make those kinds of shots. He made those shots
all night tonight and kept them in the game."
Sosa had 28 points on 10-of-16 shooting, including going 5 of
6 from 3-point range.
"I didn't feel like he was fouling me," Sosa said. "Coach
drew up a play for me to come off the screen and find some of the
guys in the corner. I did a bad job. I took too much time off the
clock. By the time I got across, there was 2 seconds left. I
couldn't find anyone."
Yancy Gates had 16 points for Cincinnati, while fellow
freshman Lance Stephenson had 12 as did junior Darnell Wilks.
Reginald Delk hit a 3 with 9.7 seconds left to bring
Louisville within 67-66 before Vaughn's free throws made it a
three-point game.
Delk had 16 points on 5-of-5 shooting, including making all
four of his 3-point attempts.
Pitino didn't look at any positives after the game.
"We were playing for a good seed," he said. "Now we're not
going to get one. You can't expect to win giving up 28 offensive
rebounds."
