CINCINNATI — For a moment, it felt as if fate had changed its mind.
With 11 seconds remaining in the Crosstown Shootout, Bearcats senior guard David DeJulius banked in a 3-pointer, drawing a foul in the process for a chance to tie the score at 77 with a four-point play. In a rivalry game during which Cincinnati never held a lead, trailing Xavier by as many as 17 points in the first half, the Bearcats clawed their way back, buoyed by a crackling, sold-out crowd.
DeJulius, who coolly made the tying free throw, put the team on his back down the stretch, scoring 17 of his game-high 22 points in the second half. It included a final shot so improbable that it had a chance to flip a narrative that had taken root for the past four years and sprouted to life during the opening 20 minutes.
But 11 seconds was too long for a Cincinnati defense that tightened up in the second half but couldn’t get a stop with the game on the line. Xavier’s Souley Boum, who led the Musketeers with 21 points, darted into the lane and drew a foul with just more than a second remaining. He made the first free throw before intentionally missing the second, but a strategic move by UC head coach Wes Miller — earning a technical for an illegal timeout to set up a last-ditch set play — wasn’t enough to tempt destiny. Xavier won 80-77 in an instant classic, and an almost-epic comeback ended in familiar fashion for the Bearcats, who have lost the past four Crosstown Shootouts and 15 of the past 21.
“I’m proud of our fight. But that is to be expected. You’re expected to fight like that,” Miller said. “I think it’s something we need to do for 40 minutes. I did not think we did that for 40 minutes tonight.”
It was not for lack of encouragement. This one had everything the Bearcats could want from a marquee game. A sold-out Fifth Third Arena crowd hurled boos and expletives at the Musketeers and officials every chance it had. New football head coach Scott Satterfield took the court during the first media timeout, offering a hearty “Beat Eggs-avier!” into the mic. Cincinnati legend Kenyon Martin and a number of former players were in attendance, including Ruben Patterson, Steve Logan and Lloyd Batts, with Martin sitting courtside and coaxing the crowd during numerous stoppages in play. The atmosphere rose to the occasion.
Final: Xavier 80, Cincinnati 77.
An all-time classic Crosstown Shootout. #Bearcats comeback effort falls short.
— Justin Williams (@Williams_Justin) December 10, 2022
“That environment tonight is the best environment I’ve ever been a part of as a college basketball player or coach, and I’ve been part of a lot of cool environments,” Miller said. “That’s the best, and I hate that we can’t get over the hump for the people who are supporting us.”
The Bearcats (6-4) laid a properly pronounced egg in the first half, shooting just 26 percent from the field and trailing 41-24 at the break. DeJulius said Martin even came into the locker room at halftime to address the team.
“Excuse my language, but he got on our ass,” DeJulius said of Martin. “That’s what we needed. When we had an OG like that come in and demand that from us, we had to respond.”
It worked. Cincinnati came out with sharper focus and better execution in the second half. It leaned in on going big, playing Viktor Lakhin and Ody Oguama in the post to combat Xavier’s Nunge and Zach Freemantle. UC’s guards moved the ball and settled for fewer jump shots, playing the ball into the post or driving the lane. Efficiency followed. After being outscored 18-8 on points in the paint in the first half, the Bearcats flipped it to 26-18 in the second half, with Oguama hammering a pair of rafter-rattling dunks in the process. UC shot 62.5 percent from the field during that stretch, attempting just eight 3-pointers and making four.
Cincinnati couldn’t quite cure its porous defense during the final 20 minutes — Xavier still shot 43 percent — but the home team did crank up the intensity, forcing seven turnovers and running the Musketeers off the 3-point line. Xavier entered the game with the second-best 3-point percentage in the country, yet the Bearcats held the Musketeers to just 2-for-10 after halftime.
Even when the Musketeers strung together what seemed like another backbreaking run, Cincinnati kept battling. Xavier was up 11 points with three minutes remaining before the Bearcats ripped off a 12-1 run (10 from DeJulius) to tie the score.
“It was one of those things where it’s my last year, we have a great team, I want to win for this team, so I’m going to go out swinging,” DeJulius said.
But the first-half hole proved too deep.
“People always ask, ‘What adjustments did you make?’ I mean, we played big with Ody and Vik, but outside of that, we didn’t make any damn adjustments. We just started playing how we practice on offense,” Miller said. “We started moving the ball, playing with passion and togetherness, and all of a sudden easy baskets and dunks find their way to you. We have to be a team that plays the right way for 40 minutes, not 15 or 20.”
The Bearcats continue to suffer from a lack of identity, something that gets magnified and exposed in the Crosstown Shootout. It’s not the sole reason for the program’s struggles against Xavier during the past two decades — Mick Cronin’s teams were dripping with identity, but they often stumbled in the rivalry matchup as well, something many fans attributed to Cronin’s interpreted attempts to downplay the game each season.
That wasn’t the case with John Brannen during his two seasons at the helm, and it hasn’t been the case for Miller his first two seasons, as he has embraced what the Shootout means to the city and championed the respect it deserves within college basketball. Yet Brannen and Miller are a combined 0-4 since Cronin’s departure against some admittedly underwhelming, underachieving Xavier squads.
Forming an identity takes time and requires continuity. That’s tough to establish with a pair of regime changes and subsequent roster upheaval over the past four years. Miller is working to instill a very different philosophy from his predecessor, both stylistically and on the recruiting trail, and Brannen’s was different from Cronin’s. The result is a mismatched roster and stunted development, and those deficiencies are almost impossible to overcome in this kind of rivalry game.
They are also the same things that have limited Miller’s teams through his first season-plus with the program. Miller wants to play destructive defense on one end and showcase a free-flowing offense on the other, but too often, the Bearcats have struggled to do either. There have been glimpses of his philosophy taking hold, including Saturday in the second half, when it was paired with a dose of old-school Bearcats toughness and a crowd that responded accordingly. But the glimpses were too fleeting, especially in a game like this one.
“I can’t tell you how bad I want it for our team and for the people who support this program. For the people who have played and coached in this program. I can’t tell you how bad I want us to get to where we’re supposed to be as a Cincinnati basketball program,” Miller said. “I don’t say the words ‘I promise’ a lot, but I promise we’ll freaking get there.
“And I mean we’ll get there or I’ll damn be in the grave. It’s that simple. We will get there. You look at that building tonight, and you want it so bad for those people. They deserve it. You want it so bad for these kids. They deserve it. We will get there.”
Fair or not, the Crosstown Shootout carries greater weight than a single game on either team’s schedule. Fans live and die by it. Coaching legacies can be drawn and defined by it. And for the past two decades, the rivalry largely has hung around the necks of Bearcats faithful like a Norwood-shaped albatross. It’s a burden Miller is still working to shed, and it makes the rest of this season even more important as he pushes this program back to where it’s supposed to be. Because that challenge only will get tougher when Cincinnati officially joins the Big 12 next year.
Fortunately for Miller and the Bearcats, the second half on Saturday felt like progress. A game that had the makings of a doom-inducing pratfall for the first 20 minutes became much more uplifting over the latter 20. Miller has successfully asserted his culture on the recruiting trail in the early going. How his team fought back against Xavier was a peek at what it can look like on the court — and a reminder of how unconditionally the UC fan base will rally around it.
After a slow start, this year’s Crosstown Shootout was a much-needed step in the right direction. Albeit with a painful and frustratingly familiar outcome for the Bearcats.
(Top photo of Wes Miller: Ian Johnson / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
