Bishop scores career-high 20 points in win

The jitters have seemingly subsided as a career-high 20 points from Rashad Bishop led the UC men’s basketball team to a 92-68 win Wednesday, Nov. 18, over the University of Toledo.

While UC head coach Mick Cronin likes Bishop’s offensive production, he is happier with his defensive play. Bishop also led the team with eight rebounds, had five assists, one block and a steal.

“I really think that Rashad is one of the two or three best perimeter defenders in the Big East,” Cronin said. “I told him we cannot be the team we want to be without him.”

In a much more efficient shooting night than its first game of the season, UC shot 52 percent from the field compared to the 39 percent they shot Monday night.

It was a big night for UC senior guard Deonta Vaughn as well.

Vaughn scored his 1,500th point as a Bearcat and dished out a team-high nine assists, had four steals and scored 13 points as one of four UC players with double-digit points.

“It feels great to be among one of the top scorers in Cincinnati,” Vaughn said. “I look forward to doing some of the great things to help get Cincinnati back to the top.”

UC pulled ahead of Toledo 19-5 early in the first half before the Rockets cut the lead down to nine at the 9:34 mark.

“Early on we didn’t bury the team like we should have,” Vaughn said. “Overall we still have some things to work on as a team.”

Late in the first half, Vaughn stole a pass and ran the floor against a Toledo defender.

Vaughn threw a bounce pass to a trailing Lance Stephenson who dunked it for two of his 16 points. UC went into halftime up 49-33.

Toledo cut the lead to eight points with 13:45 remaining in the game, but UC scored 13 points on its next five possessions, including three 3-pointers, to pull away for good.

The Rockets were able to stay in the game early on with some sharp shooting from behind the three-point line. Stephen Albrecht went 4 for 4 from deep in the first half and finished the game 5 for 9 from behind the arc. The 6-foot-3, 175-pound redshirt freshman was second in scoring for Toledo with 19 points.

Yancy Gates was the other UC player in double figures and was the most efficient of them all, scoring 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting and four assists.

“I watched film with the coaches and they talked about how I needed to be more active on offense as far as moving without the ball so that’s what I tried to do today,” Gates said.

Cashmere Wright had seven points, three assists and two steals with only one turnover.

The Bearcats turned the ball over only 10 times, compared to 17 against Prairie View A&M.

Larry Davis had six points, five rebounds and two assists on a night where no Bearcat played more than 28 minutes.

Next up, UC heads to Maui, Hawaii, for the Maui Invitational Nov. 23 to Nov. 25. The Cats take on Vanderbilt in the opening round at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN2.