National Basketball Association
Cincinnati 97, Memphis 84
When: 7:00 PM ET, Thursday, March 6, 2014
Where: Fifth Third Arena, Cincinnati, Ohio
Officials:
# Doug Sirmons, # Joe DeRosa, # Ray Natilli
Attendance:
13176
By SportsDirect Inc.
No. 15 Cincinnati 97, No. 20 Memphis 84: Sean Kilpatrick scored 34 points in the final home game of his stellar career to lead the Bearcats past the Tigers in American Athletic Conference play.
Titus Rubles added a career-high 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting as Cincinnati (25-5, 14-3 AAC) pulled into a first-place tie with Louisville with one regular-season game remaining. Justin Jackson contributed 13 points, nine rebounds and three steals as the Bearcats improved to 18-1 at home.
Joe Jackson scored 21 points and Michael Dixon Jr. added 19 for Memphis (22-8, 11-6), which fell to fifth place in the conference race. Austin Nichols tallied 17 points for his fifth consecutive double-digit scoring outing.
Memphis trailed 43-42 with just over 16 1/2 minutes remaining before the Bearcats pulled away with a 28-11 burst over the next nine minutes. Kilpatrick scored 11 points during the spurt – including seven straight Cincinnati points at one stretch – as the Bearcats stretched the lead to 18, and the Tigers finally got within single digits on two free throws by Joe Jackson with 2:11 left before Cincinnati made 13-of-14 free throws over the last 83 seconds.
The Bearcats rolled off 14 straight points to take an early 18-4 lead but Memphis cut Cincinnati’s lead to 38-32 at the break. The Tigers opened the second half with a 7-2 run to pull within one on a basket by Nichols.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Cincinnati committed a season-low three turnovers while forcing the Tigers into 14 miscues. … Jackson (1,637) moved into eighth-place on Memphis’ all-time scoring list, surpassing Bill Cook (1,629 from 1972-76). … Kilpatrick recorded his third career 30-point outing and made two 3-pointers to raise his career count to 302, four behind second-place Darnell Burton (1993-97) on the school’s all-time list.
Top Game Performances
Memphis |
|
Cincinnati |
Joe Jackson 21 |
Scoring |
Sean Kilpatrick 34 |
Joe Jackson 6 |
Assists |
Justin Jackson 3 |
Shaq Goodwin 9 |
Rebounds |
Justin Jackson 9 |
Joe Jackson 10 |
Free Throws Made |
Sean Kilpatrick 10 |
Shaq Goodwin 1 |
Steals |
Justin Jackson 3 |
Michael Dixon Jr. 1 |
Blocks |
Justin Jackson 2 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Memphis
|
84 |
46.8 |
9-27 |
17-20 |
18 |
25 |
2 |
1 |
14 |
Cincinnati
|
97 |
53.3 |
4-12 |
29-38 |
13 |
26 |
6 |
7 |
3 |