If the other team can't miss, there's only one solution: Don't let 'em shoot.
Cincinnati essentially did just that to No. 11 Georgetown on Monday night. Trailing by six with 6 minutes to play, the Bearcats forced five turnovers and only allowed four field-goal attempts the rest of the way to pull out a 68-64 victory over the Hoyas.
''They were shooting, like, 60 percent or something until then,'' guard Dion Dixon said, ''so we got into the huddle and told everybody, 'Let's dig in. Let's get stops this last six minutes of the game.' ''
Sean Kilpatrick scored a career-high 27 points and had four steals, and Cincinnati went 6 for 6 from the free throw line in the final 70 seconds. Dixon added 22 points and had two of his four steals in those closing minutes for the Bearcats, who forced Georgetown into 17 turnovers, matching the Hoyas' season-high.
Cincinnati (13-4, 3-1) has won eight of nine, and it recovered well from a home loss to St. John's over the weekend.
''We had a debacle on Saturday where we weren't ready to play,'' coach Mick Cronin said. ''And we had a little wakeup call. Any time your team's able to respond to adversity, which our team really has for the last month, you've got to be proud.''
Hollis Thompson and Jason Clark scored 14 points apiece and combined to go 11 for 13 from the field from the Hoyas (13-3, 3-2), whose 59 percent shooting was undone by their carelessness with the ball.
''We cannot turn the ball over like that,'' Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. ''That was the ball game. You've got to give them credit, but then after you do that, most of our turnovers were what I call unforced turnovers. . . . It was just us not being good passers, not being good receivers.''
Georgetown has lost two straight after an 11-game winning streak, and the Hoyas lost for the first time this season at home, having started 9-0 at the Verizon Center. They have committed at least 15 turnovers in three straight games.
''You don't lose two in a row and just walk out the door and don't think about it,'' coach Thompson said. ''So you've got to sit back, you've got to analyze, but at the same time I think we know what makes us good and we know the mistakes the last two games which have caused us not to come out on the victorious end of the ledger.''
It would help if they could get the ball to the hot hand. Hollis Thompson was 4 for 4 from 3-point range — including a buzzer-beater at halftime — but he attempted only one shot in the second half as Kilpatrick shadowed him.
''I wasn't real happy, as you can imagine, at halftime that he was 4 for 4,'' Cronin said. ''It's not a rocket science move. Every scouting report says you can't let him shoot, so needless to say I was a little vocal at halftime that he doesn't need to get any more attempts from the 3-point line.''
Cashmere Wright broke a 62-62 tie with two free throws with 1:07 remaining — his only points of the game. Georgetown missed its first chance to tie when freshman Otto Porter couldn't convert on a drive to the paint. Thompson grabbed the rebound, but Porter stepped out of bounds trying to drive the baseline with 7.2 seconds left.
Dixon then went 4 for 4 from the line in the final seconds to seal the victory.
Cincinnati's Yancy Gates returned to the starting lineup for the first time since his six-game suspension for his part in the Dec. 10 brawl against Xavier. Gates, who had come off the bench for two games after the suspension, finished with eight points and seven rebounds.
Cincinnati freshman guard Ge'Lawn Guyn suffered a head injury midway through the first half in a collision with Georgetown's Greg Whittington as both dove for a loose ball. Guyn wasn't able to lift his legs as he was helped to the bench, and then was taken to the locker room during the next timeout.
Guyn was back on the bench for the start of the second half, but then was taken to a hospital.
''With the concussion, you don't know, so you've got to take him and find out,'' Cronin said. ''He's OK. Our doctors are with him at the hospital.''
