(Photo courtesy of Jeff McCurry)
John Brannen may be at a new school, but he is still coaching the same principles you saw in his tenure at Northern Kentucky University.
The Bearcats got off to a bit of a slow start offensively but the defensive mindset of 94 feet and smothering man to man play was very easy to spot early on in tonight's performance. Thomas More was leading Cincinnati 10-6 at the under 16 timeout before the Bearcats offense began to feel some rhythm with a quick layup from senior Trevon Scott and a Three from star player Jarron Cumberland. Thomas More went ahead with a three point basket and tied the game at 13-13 at the 10 minute mark before UC 13-0 run and closing the half with a 27-1 scoring advantage.
The second half was more of the same with Cincinnati making two quick 3's from Chris McNeal and Jarron Cumberland. The Bearcats had multiple scoring runs including a huge 9-0 run between 11:52-08:52 remaining in the game. The team also forced scored 28 points off of the 21 forced turnovers throughout the night.
Cincinnati saw a great performance from grad transfer Jaevin Cumberland scoring 15 points shooting 5-5 from the field and 3-3 from the three point line. Chris Vogt, the former Northern Kentucky Center that followed John Brannen to UC also got the start for the Bearcats getting 6 points and four rebounds in 16 minutes of play.
Up next for the Bearcats: The season opener in Columbus on November 6th to face the Ohio State Buckeyes. Last year the two teams started the season competing against each other at 5/3 Arena where the Buckeyes pulled off the 64-56 victory.
