Recap: Bearcats 69, Blue Raiders 48

After an excruciatingly painful first half, the Bearcats finally found their offense.  Boy did they ever.  Sean Kilpatrick and Justin Jackson paced the offense and some other guys actually chipped in.  It was a thing of beauty and brought a tear to my eye.  OK let's get to it.

Things I Didn't Like:

• The first half. All of it.  21 points was actually behind the pace for their big win Tuesday in New York over Pitt.  Thankfully they threw this out with the trash because that's what it was.  So let's just wrap the bad stuff all in one half and get to the good stuff.

Things I Liked:

• The second half.  All of it.  48 points in 20 minutes?!?! That's flat out ridiculous for this team.  Whatever they did, I hope they keep it going.  That's a ton more exciting to watch than the deliberate, drag-it-out first half.  Obviously they're not trying to miss shots and turn the ball over.  Obviously they don't want to keep games close.  So it's not their lack of effort, it's just the execution. 
  
• Justin Jackson continues his return.  After taking a couple of terrible games off, JJ has returned to the land of production.  He scored a career high 16 points and grabbed 12 boards.  Pretty sure we'd take that every single time out.  Oh, and he tossed in two actual legitimate post moves that looked like he had a clue what he was doing.  I haven't had a chance to say that too many times in his career...especially at the offensive end.  I still hope he bags that awful 10 foot bank shot, but I'm not too optimistic on this one.
• Jermaine Sanders made two shots.  I believe those were the first since his freshman year.  But I could be wrong.
• Shaq Thomas found some aggressiveness.  The talented sophomore showed his ability a few times early in the second half by getting to the rim instead of tentatively floating through the game like he was pleased with whatever he was doing at the time.  He still has major flaws in his jump shot which by now you would have hoped would be ironed out a little better, but these things apparently take more time. 
  
• 60% shooting in the second half.  6-12 from three.  8-10 from the foul line.  All good.  Please stick around a while.
• +7 on the rebounding front.  This has to continue. 
  
• The freshmen seem to be getting it a little more and more.  No they didn't score a ton, but Kevin Johnson, Troy Caupain, and Jermaine Lawrence are finding their place and seem comfortable.  In fact, I'm assuming the only reason Ge'Lawn Guyn is still the starting point guard is because of his defense.  Obviously he's not bringing anything to the table on the offensive end. 
  

The Bearcats play their last game before Christmas Monday night against 5-6 Chicago State.  Let's hope this offensive explosion sticks around a while....like a few more months.