Cincinnati Bearcats: Oh Say, Can UC?

WASHINGTON -- The Cincinnati Bearcats defeated the Missouri Tigers 78-63 Thursday night in their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2005, where they lost to Kentucky in the second round. Bob Huggins was still coaching for the Bearcats.

Mick Cronin began a new era tonight.

Yancy Gates made seven of eight shots from the field, scoring 18 points and thrashing his way to 11 rebounds. Dion Dixon had 16 points and Cashmere Wright added 11 points with six assists as Cincinnati held a high-scoring Missouri offense to just 63 points and 37 percent shooting from the field.

The Tigers (23-11, 8-8) came into the game averaging 81.4 points a game, good for 9th in the nation. However, Missouri had not seen a defense like Cincinnati's. The Bearcats (26-8, 11-7) were holding opponents to under 60 points a game, the best in the Big East.

After allowing the Tigers to jump to an early 9-2 lead, Cincinnati had to make an adjustment. Mick Cronin had his team switch from a man-to-man defense to a zone.

Missouri had no answer.

Shooting just 29 percent for the first half, Missouri allowed the Bearcats to build an 11 point lead at halftime, leading 39-28.

It didn't get better for Mike Anderson's Tigers.

There was about an 11 minute stretch where Missouri couldn't manage to score a field goal, and Marcus Denmon, their leading scorer at 17.1 points a game, was held to 10 points. He shot just three of 11 from the field and two of seven from behind the arc.

Yancy Gates hit his fourth three-pointer of the year to push the lead to 15 with 4:34 remaining, putting the game out of reach.

"We're excited," said Mick Cronin after the game.

As they should be.

The Bearcats will have a familiar matchup in the third round, where they find themselves against Jim Calhoun's Connecticut Huskies.

Connecticut handed Cincinnati their seventh loss of the season on Feb. 27, 67-59. It went on to win the Big East tournament.