After three straight away games, Sean Kilpatrick and his Cincinnati teammates needed a half to get used to being home.
Kilpatrick scored 16 points in the second to tie his season-high with 23 and the Bearcats poured in 48 points after halftime to roll to a 69-48 win over the Middle Tennessee on Saturday.
“It felt good to be back home, at least,” said Kilpatrick, who moved past Louis Banks into eighth place on Cincinnati’s career scoring list. “It felt like a long journey. It felt good in the second half to get our legs back up under us and get used to the rims again. Playing in the Garden, it’s hard to get used to the rims and the scenery.”
After shooting 26.1 percent (6 of 23) from the field in the first half, including 1 of 6 on 3-pointers, the Bearcats shot a blistering 60.7 percent (17 of 28) and made 5 of 6 3-pointers after halftime to equal their highest-scoring half of the season.
“We’re more of a second-half team than a first-half team,” said senior forward Justin Jackson, who recorded his third career double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds — tying his career-high. “I can’t tell you why. It’s been like that since I’ve been here. It is what it is.”
Cincinnati (9-2) scored four more points in the second half on Saturday as it did in a 44-43 win over Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden in New York on Tuesday. The Bearcats led by as many as 24 points in the second half on their way to a second straight win after losing two in a row.
After being outrebounded, 21-17, and allowing Middle Tennessee to build a 9-0 advantage in second-chance points in the first half, Cincinnati outrebounded the Blue Raiders, 20-9, and scored 11 second-chance points to the visitors’ four in the second half.
“They don’t give you anything easy,” Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. “We knew it would be a grind. We wanted to gradually try to pull away. We wanted to try to make the press as much of a factor as we could. It was more of a factor in the second half than it was in the first half.”
Jackson also had four blocked shots, one shy of his season-high, before a crowd of 5,424, the second-lowest of the season at 13,176-seat Fifth Third Arena. The Bearcats are 8-0 at home for the second consecutive season and third time in the past four years. They have held opponents under 70 points for 18 consecutive games.
Kerry Hammonds finished with a season-high five 3-pointers and scored 17 points to lead the Blue Raiders (8-4), who shot a season-worst 26.7 percent (12 for 45) from the field while scoring their fewest points of the season. Middle Tennessee’s previous season-low in points was 59 in a 20-point loss at Florida on Nov. 21.
About the Author