Friars Baptize Bearcats

For the second-straight game, the University of Cincinnati men’s basketball team ran into an opponent that couldn’t miss from behind the arc, as the Providence Friars hit 12 3-pointers on the way to an 87-79 win.

Providence (11-4, 3-0 Big East) struggled with its outside shooting earlier in the year, shooting just 29.5 percent from behind the arc coming into the game. Against the Bearcats, the Friars shot 50 percent from 3-point range and made 6-of-10 3-point attempts in the second half.

UC head coach Mick Cronin pointed to his team’s lack of defense as the sole reason for the loss.

“Everyone wants to be concerned about offense,” Cronin said. “We need to be worried about defense. We won eight Big East games last year playing tremendous defense. If we would have defended, we would have won tonight.”

The Bearcats (10-5, 0-2 Big East) had a tough time stopping the pick-and-roll and Weyinmi Efejuku made a living getting to the line in the second half.

“It draws out their big men and it brings out mismatches when our big men roll to the basket,” said Efejuku, who finished the game with 18 points, seven assists, no turnovers and went 11-for-14 from the line.

An early 9-0 run by the Bearcats put them out in front 12-7, five minutes into the game.

They held a lead for most of the first half, but Providence outscored UC 19-9 over the final eight and a half minutes, and took a 42-35 lead into halftime.

After trailing by as many as 13, UC went on a 13-1 run midway through the first and a Dion Dixon step-back jumper tied the score at 66 with 7:17 to go in the game.

Two minutes later, Efejuku scored six straight points, with four of them coming from the free throw line, to give the Friars’ a 79-70 lead.

“The backbreakers are the hand-check fouls and they shoot 24 free throws in the second half,” Cronin said.

In comparison, UC attempted only seven free throws in the second half.

The Bearcats made another run over the last three minutes of the game and a Deonta Vaughn layup with 2:14 left brought the Bearcats to within two.

On the next possession, UC forced two missed shots but couldn’t pull down a rebound, giving the Friars’ two extra chances to score. Providence ran 1:21 off of the clock before Jeff Xavier nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to put his team up five with 53 seconds left, essentially sealing the win.

Vaughn, who did not score a point for the first time in his career in the game against Marquette, scored 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting and pulled down seven rebounds in the game.

Mike Williams scored a career-high 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting after scoring just 11 points in the last three games.