Cincinnati 66 Pitt 63: First Bearcats Win at Pitt since 1979
By Chris Bains
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The Bearcats basically won this one the way they had the last five games: By out-hustling the opposition on every single play and forcing them to play uncertain on offense. Now Pitt wasn’t exactly tearing the wood off the court. They had lost two straight heading into this game and UC definitely caught the Panthers at the right time. But the Bearcats hadn’t won at Pitt in almost three decades. It’s just a difficult place to pull of a W and the simple fact that Cincy did it by being outsized on the inside is quite an accomplishment. UC was definitely missing the inside presence of Yancy Gates, Cheikh Mbodj, and Octavius Ellis as Pitt led the ‘Cats in rebounds 39 – 28. No matter. The biggest difference in the game was the extra possessions Cincinnati got off of 11 steals and 18 Pitt turnovers. The Bearcats simply played harder than the Panthers and got stellar play from Jaquon Parker and Sean Kilpatrick who were draining buckets from beyond the arc all evening (9 of 17). Cash didn’t light up the scoreboard but did contribute with 7 assists and again did a great job running the offense. This was a really encouraging win and I’m interested to see how the rejoining of the three suspended players affects the dynamics of this offense on Wednesday against Notre Dame.