 "Photo: Thomas E. Smith | The News Record")
Sophomore Alvin Mitchell scored a career-high 15 points as the University of Cincinnati basketball team improved to 2-0 with an 82-51 win over the Texas Southern Tigers.
Mitchell made 4-of-7 threes and shot 3-of-4 from the free throw line, giving the Bearcats an offensive spark off the bench.
“That’s the guy you see in practice for us, the guy that if you leave him, he can make shots,” said head coach Mick Cronin. “If he can give us a guy who can make open shots with our interior play and Deonta out there on the floor, it makes us much harder to defend.”
The Bearcats led 17-2 early in the game after Darnell Wilks threw down an alley-oop from Deonta Vaughn to cap off a 15-0 run. After playing sparingly last season, Wilks had a nice game against the Tigers, scoring seven points on 3-of-3 shooting in 14 minutes.
Texas Southern cut the lead to 12 with 10 minutes to go in the half, but the Bearcats responded with an 18-2 run over the next five minutes to make the score 39-11.
At halftime, UC led Texas Southern 51-24. UC shot 60.6 percent from the field in the first half and had 12 assists and only five turnovers. Texas Southern had a tough time handling UC’s pressure defense as the Bearcats forced nine turnovers in the first half and scored 20 points off those turnovers.
The Tigers picked up their intensity after halftime and kept the lead to the mid-20s for most of the second half. Cronin wasn’t pleased with his team’s performance in the second half as UC shot just 37.9 percent from the field and committed 12 turnovers.
“I thought our guys didn’t have the same focus that they had in the first half,” Cronin said. “But it’s nice to play a bad half of basketball and still win by 31. It says we have better talent.”
Vaughn scored 12 points in the first half, but was shut out in the second half.
“It’s good that we scored 82 points and Deonta Vaughn only had 12,” Cronin said. “That couldn’t have happened last year if we’d have played 60 to 70 minutes, so that part of it definitely felt good.”
Dion Dixon continued to rebound the ball well for a guard as he pulled down 10 rebounds, with six of them coming on the offensive end.
Junior College transfer Steve Toyloy had another solid game for the Bearcats and should be a major part of the frontcourt rotation for the rest of the year. Toyloy had 11 points and seven rebounds on 5-of-5 shooting.
“He competes on every play. He never takes a play off,” Cronin said. “He may not have the ability of some of our other guys but he’s going to maximize what he has. He’s a much better offensive player than people gave him credit for.”
The lone bright spot for Texas Southern was junior Deandre Hall, who scored 29 of his team’s 51 points.
Next up, the Bearcats play Western Illinois at noon Saturday, Nov. 22 at Fifth Third Arena.
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