Williams Leads Bearcats Past UConn

Rooting for the Cincinnati Bearcats may be hazardous to your health. Despite leading by as many as 15 points in the second half, the Bearcats very nearly collapsed before holding on for a 64-60 win over the UConn Huskies at the XL Center on Sunday afternoon.

The Bearcats (23-4, 12-2 American Athletic Conference) opened the second half with a 12-2 run to transform a 32-29 halftime lead into a 44-31 advantage. They continued to lead by double digits for quite some time until, starting with less than 10 minutes to play, the Huskies ripped off a run of their own, scoring 16 unanswered points to take a 51-50 lead. The Bearcats finally responded with a layup from Keith Williams off an offensive rebound and never trailed again, but they also never led by more than four all the way to when the final buzzer sounded.

Williams scored 12 points and also had six rebounds and three assists for UC, which has won three-straight games. Justin Jenifer and Cane Broome each netted 10 points while leading scorer Jarron Cumberland was limited to eight points on 3-of-9 shooting.

Christian Vital led UConn (13-14, 4-10) with 14 points while Alterique Gilbert managed 13 points in support. The Huskies have lost five-straight games.

This was not the easiest start to a two-game road trip for the Bearcats, who will travel to face the SMU Mustangs on Wednesday, but at this point, we should be used to highly stressful wins.