Cincinnati-UAB Basketball: Mike Williams Helps Bearcats Earn Payback

Payback always feels good.

Dion Dixon and the Cincinnati Bearcats (6-1, 0-0) held off the scrappy UAB Blazers, 87-80, before 6,500 fans at Fifth Third Arena Saturday. UAB (5-3, 0-0) put a hurtin’ on UC last season in Birmingham, winning by 17 points. 

Mick Cronin once again received positive contributions from all 10 Bearcats in his deep rotation. Senior forward Mike “Everything's Jelly” Williams was the high scorer with 17, thanks to 11-of-14 shooting from the foul line. Explosive sophomore Darnell Wilks came off the pine to smoothly drain two three-pointers in the first half, and UC carved out a 12-point lead at the break.

Cronin held Deonta Vaughn (13.3 ppg, 4.5 apg) and Rashad Bishop (6’6” sophomore, Newark, NJ) out of the starting lineup, later revealing that neither guard practiced well during the week. It was the first time in 66 games that Vaughn did not start.

Both Bearcats responded well to the lesson—Vaughn offered 16 points, five rebounds, and five assists to the box score, while Bishop led the team in rebounds with eight. 

The Blazers, led by senior Robert Vaden’s 23 points, attempted to get back in the game in the second half—cutting the UC lead to six on a Vaden triple with 15:09 to play. Vaughn then answered with back-to-back buckets as the Bearcats eventually built a nineteen-point bulge, capped by a buttery Mike Williams J with 4:45 to play. 

The young, much-improved Bearcats shot 50 percent from the floor and out-rebounded UAB by fifteen. However, UC committed 16 turnovers to only 14 assists, which Cronin attributed to UAB’s pressure and the Bearcats’ lack of a true point guard. 

The 6-1 Bearcats now have a week off to prepare for the Crosstown Shootout battle with 14th-ranked Xavier (a.k.a. “God’s Team”) next Saturday (8:00 EST, ESPN2).

Cronin is 1-1 vs. the Musketeers in his short tenure at Cincinnati. The game will be played in Fifth Third Arena (the home team has won the last five games in this rivalry).