The game clock struck 0:00 to complete the Cincinnati Bearcats' fourth and perhaps most satisfying victory, but already they were preoccupied as they mingled with the Wright State players, shaking hands on the way off the court.
It was 8:05 p.m. Precisely 165 hours until that trip cross town.
''As soon as the buzzer went off, I started thinking about Xavier,'' said UC guard D'Juan Baker. ''This game is behind us, and we start getting ready for the next one.''
UC coach Bob Huggins' one complaint about Saturday's 85-60 victory over Wright State, viewed by a season-best crowd of 10,978 at Shoemaker Center, is the Bearcats appeared to begin their mental preparations for the Muskeeters with 11 minutes still to play in this one.
The Bearcats (4-1) led 62-35 with 11:25 left, but were outscored by the Raiders (3-3) from that point on.
''I thought we played pretty well for 30 minutes, and then we kind of stopped playing,'' Huggins said. ''We're making progress at playing harder for an extended period of time. But our margin for error isn't a whole bunch.''
It is greater than it might have seemed, though, at the start of the game. UC was able to build a 15-point first-half lead even with leading scorer D'Juan Baker taking a while to locate his shooting touch.
Senior forward Bobby Brannen scored 18 of his career-best 28 points in the first half. The Bearcats patiently and efficiently broke down Wright State's zone defense, getting seven of their first nine baskets from within a few feet of the goal.
On a better night, Baker would have unraveled this defense a few minutes after the Bearcats finished layup drills. It wasn't until the 3:59 mark of the first half that he made his first shot, a three-pointer, and even that did not completely cure him. He still had another three misses in him before the break and was 2-of-12 as he returned for the second half.
But he did return.
The Baker who scorched Alcorn State for 33 points and was averaging 26 set up on the left wing and took apart the Wright defense.
He made three jumpers, two from three-point range, before Wright coach Ed Schilling abandoned the zone. Against the man-to-man, Baker immediately drove to the goal and put UC ahead, 62-35.
''I'm going to have nights like that,'' Baker said. ''If I'm not going to make the first couple shots, I have to keep concentrating.
''A couple were in and out, and I kept thinking about what I was doing wrong. I wasn't sitting down low, getting ready to shoot the ball. I wasn't putting any arc on the ball. I was aiming. I can't shoot like that.''
UC again broke out its pressure defense and was able to force 26 turnovers. The Bearcats squeezed out nine but led only 19-16 when Wright State's volatile center, Marvin Rodgers, picked up his third personal foul.
Wright scored only a point a minute for the final six minutes, as UC picked up two free throws from Baker, a three-point play by Martin and then a dunk by point guard Michael Horton off Martin's lob pass. When Baker hit consecutive three-pointers, the lead was in double figures for good.
''I felt like that's what really turned the game for us,'' Schilling said. ''He was handling the ball and was really the focal point of our press offense. They were able to create a lot of turnovers, capitalized on some of our soft passes.
''They've got bodyguards. Not point guards or shooting guards. Pound-for-pound, they're as strong as any team in the country.''
Schilling's most flattering, if dubious, comment about the Bearcats was to say a team's errors are magnified ''when you play against a top 20-type team.''
The Bearcats technically are off to a better start than their immediate predecessors, the preseason No. 1 team that stood 3-2 after five games. But they have not yet been ranked in either of the wire-service polls. That could happen if UC were to reach 5-1.
''To me, it's very important, and I try to stress the importance to the other guys,'' said Brannen, who grew up here and graduated from Moeller High. ''Record-wise, it's only one game. But everybody in this city is either a Bearcat or Xavier fan. If you lose that one, you hear about it all year. And we don't want to hear about it.
''They're a good group of guys. They play over here in the summer. We don't hate one another. But when the ball's tossed up, it changes.''
Brannen sets FT mark
Wright St. m fg at ft at r a f to tp
Brooks 38 9 16 2 5 4 1 5 5 20
Rodgers 28 6 16 2 5 6 1 1 4 17
Burton 34 8 12 0 2 10 0 0 4 16
Baultrippe 23 0 6 0 0 2 1 1 1 0
Pardon 33 0 3 0 0 2 3 3 4 0
Curry 14 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 5 1
Cos 11 0 3 0 0 2 1 3 1 0
S-Emukapor 10 1 1 2 2 2 1 2 1 4
Yeagle 3 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Petersons 7 0 1 2 2 1 0 1 1 2
Gross 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Chambers 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- - - - - - - - - -
Totals 200 24 60 12 19 38 8 26 26 60
Team Rebounds- 3.
UC m fg at ft at r a f to tp
Levett 30 1 5 1 2 5 3 4 4 4
Brannen 38 9 13 10 11 13 0 2 1 28
Martin 22 4 6 1 2 5 1 4 2 9
Baker 39 7 22 7 8 2 1 2 2 26
Horton 34 3 6 2 4 5 6 1 2 8
Fletcher 16 3 5 1 2 2 0 4 3 8
Petrus 15 1 1 0 0 1 0 4 3 2
Jackson 5 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0
Carson 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Stocks 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Meachum 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- - - - - - - - - -
Totals 200 28 60 22 29 35 11 21 17 85
Team Rebounds- 1.
Wright St. 24 36 - 60
Cincinnati 39 46 - 85
Attendance- 10,978 . 3-point goals- Wright State (0-9) Rodgers 0-3, Baultrippe 0-3, Brooks 0-2, Curry 0-1; UC (7-18) Baker 5-15, Fletcher 1-1, Levett 1-1, Carson 0-1. Officials: Robert Hatfield Steven Piatt, Gerry Pollard. Technical fouls: Baker.
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