By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FORT WORTH, Texas - Senior point guard Taron Barker watched most of the second half of the University of Cincinnati's 83-72 victory over TCU from the bench Saturday night.

Barker, who started the game, played only six minutes in the second half, despite recording eight assists in the first half. He finished with 10 assists, one short of his career high.

But for most of the second half, and when the game was on the line, it was freshman Chadd Moore who was running the offense. Moore blocked a Junior Blount shot with UC up by two and just more than 3‡ minutes left in the game, but he also threw up an air ball at about the three-minute mark, with UC leading by five.

Moore finished with five points, five assists and two blocked shots in 23 minutes.

"Chadd played pretty good," said UC coach Bob Huggins. "He was penetrating and he created some things on the defensive end."

But Huggins said Barker is still his starting point guard.

"As long as Taron has a good attitude and comes in and works every day, he's going to be our starter," Huggins said. "But Chadd's going to get minutes."

Barker started the second half but was replaced by Moore about five minutes into it and didn't return until the 1:19 mark, when he and Moore were in the game together.

Moore was one of the first UC players to leave the court after the game, and he did not make himself available to the media.

INJURIES: Guard Tony Bobbitt, nursing a sprained left ankle, suited up but did not play. Bobbitt said the swelling was down and he could have played if necessary. He said he would be ready for UC's next game, Wednesday at Saint Louis.

Starting center Derek Hollman twisted his ankle in the first half but returned later in the game.

UNPOPULAR ZONE: Forward Leonard Stokes wasn't happy about having to play so much zone defense in the second half.

"We've got too much pride," Stokes said. "We should be playing man-to-man. But we couldn't get a rebound. That's why we had to play it."

Stokes was shocked to see the Bearcats outrebounded TCU 42-32.

"Is this right?" he asked as he looked at the stat sheet. "We outrebounded them by 10? It felt like we were getting pounded."

E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com