Hibbert dominates Bearcats

The University of Cincinnati men's basketball team lost its seventh game in the last eight tries Saturday as they fell to Big East foe Georgetown University 82-67.

Georgetown center Roy Hibbert led all scorers with a career-high 26 points and 10 rebounds, while junior Marcus Sikes paced the Bearcats with 19 points despite fouling out with more than 13 minutes left in the game.

Hibbert got the scoring started for the Hoyas, and provided a sneak peek to what the second half would look like, when he sank a jumper from 5 feet out. Sikes responded, hitting his first 3-pointer of the game.

Despite being at a distinct size disadvantage, the Bearcats were able to stay within 10 points most of the first half until the Hoyas went on a 10-0 run capped off by a Jeff Green 3-pointer making it 38-21 with 4 minutes left in the half.

The Bearcats wouldn't go away, tightening up their defense and allowing Georgetown only two more points the rest of the half, while responding with an 11-0 run of their own to cut the deficit to five at the half, 40-35. Junior Marvin Gentry keyed the run with nine of the 11 points during the UC run.

The second half turned into The Roy Hibbert Show as the Hoyas began pounding the ball into the post. Georgetown's 7-foot-2 center scored six of the first eight Hoya points in the half to put them up by 13.

Freshman Deonta Vaughn then hit back-to-back three's to cut the lead to five and force a Georgetown timeout.

With 13:30 left in the game, Sikes was whistled for his fourth foul while defending Hibbert, but head coach Mick Cronin thought the foul was on Vaughn and sent in a substitute for him instead of Sikes. Seven seconds later Sikes was called for his fifth and final foul on what could only be considered a questionable call.

"They were putting the ball in play so fast," Cronin said. "As Deonta comes out, somebody yells at me, 'Sikes has got four.' I said, 'Well, the foul was on Deonta' and somebody yells from the table that it was on 10. I tried to obviously get him back out and I hear another whistle. It's just a one-in-a-million thing. It's just unfortunate."

With Sikes and his 6-foot-8 frame out of the game, UC could do little to stop Hibbert as he scored eight of the next 14 Georgetown points.

Gentry and Vaughn kept the Bearcats in it, combining for eight points on a mini-UC run that got the Cats to within seven with 5 minutes to go.

In the end, the combination of Hibbert and Green was simply too much for UC as they fell for their 10th loss of the season.

Vaughn, who went scoreless in the first half, was able to put up 18 points going 4-of-9 from downtown, while Gentry chipped in 15 points coming off the bench.

Up next the Bearcats play host to long-time rival Louisville Wednesday at 7p.m.