No. 6 Cincinnati 78, No. 11 Missouri 63
It won’t be Yancy Gates’s near-perfect night from the floor or his dominant performance in the paint that will be remembered from Cincinnati’s first NCAA Tournament win in six years.
Instead, it will the two “No, no – yes” moments the 6-foot-9, 265-pound monster forward produced at the three-point line, knocking down a pair of attempts – matching the number of three-pointers he’s hit all season, and one short of the total for his career – as the sixth-seeded Bearcats started worse than No. 11 Missouri but finished much better in a 78-63 second-round victory at Verizon Center.
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“The one, the shot clock was running down,” said Gates, a Cincinnati native. “The second, I don’t know, really. I was just in rhythm. I just felt like it was a good shot.”
“You don’t have to make excuses,” said Bearcats head coach Mick Cronin, who had plenty of reasons after his first NCAA Tournament victory to overlook the out-of-character launches by his premier big man, who scored 18 points on 7-for-8 shooting and pulled down 11 rebounds.
Led by Gates, Cincinnati was ruthlessly efficient in the second half, shooting 62.5 percent (15 for 24) to keep the Tigers (23-11) at bay. Missouri closed to within six points, 54-48, with just over 10 minutes remaining before Gates responded with a dunk at the other end. By the time the senior forward knocked down his “in-rhythm” three-pointer six minutes later, the Bearcats (26-8) had extended their lead well into double digits.
The Bearcats finished the night with a 21-10 advantage in second-chance points, a 42-26 margin in the paint, and a combined 27 points from their starting backcourt of Dion Dixon (16 points) and Cashmere Wright (11 points).
For Missouri, the game played out much like the team’s season, starting with promise only to come apart steadily. After being ranked in the national top 10 in January, Thursday’s loss was the Tigers’ fourth in their final six games.
Against Cincinnati, Missouri got early points from Ricardo Ratliffe (team-high 13 points) and Marcus Denmon (10 points) to open a 9-2 lead. But the Tigers shot poorly from there – Gates cut Missouri’s lead to 14-12 with his first three – ending the first half under 30 percent from the field, which prevented them from setting up their trademark full court pressure after made baskets.
“I looked at the stat sheet at halftime and was like, ‘Are we hitting the wall?’” said Tigers head coach Mike Anderson, who also got 11 points from Michael Dixon and 10 from Laurence Bowers.
Cincinnati’s victory set up the first conference rematch of the Big East-heavy NCAA Tournament, with the Bearcats advancing to face Connecticut on Saturday.
“We saw the selections and how early we could end up playing a Big East team,” said Gates. “We kind of laughed about it. We knew we’d probably end up playing one, but UConn, they’re hot right now. I don’t know how fresh they are, but I figure if we can hold the young guys, we can be okay. Kemba Walker’s going to do his thing and but if the young guys get going, that’s when they really get in a groove.”
