BY MICHAEL PERRY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
XU's Darnell Williams pressures UC's Michael Horton. UC had 29 turnovers.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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Xavier senior T.J. Johnson sat in his locker room cubicle clutching the Crosstown Shootout trophy in his lap with both hands, reluctant to give it up.
Johnson grabbed it as soon as it was presented on the court after the game and carried it away.
''It's mine, man,'' he said, smiling after the seventh-ranked Musketeers' 88-68 rout of intracity rival Cincinnati on Saturday. ''I've been here four years. They killed me the first two years. This feels pretty good.''
It was atypical of a rivalry that has become known as the Shootout and been decided by nine points or less the past four years.
With nine minutes left in their 65th meeting, it was over.
Xavier, which led by as many as 22 points in the first half, won by its second-largest margin of victory in the series, trailing only its 26-point victory in 1956-57. The last time Xavier beat the Bearcats twice in a row was during a three-game winning streak from 1983-86.
''The main thing is, they did so much talking over there before the game about what they were going to do to us, and we just took that as a personal challenge,'' Johnson said.
''If this game didn't do anything at all, I think we at least gained some respect from them. UC is going to be UC. They have a very good team. It just happened to be our night.''
And how.
Though Xavier coach Skip Prosser said he did not relax until the final minute when he emptied his bench, the game was clearly out of UC's reach well before that.
Bobby Brannen and James Posey reach for a rebound as Kenyon Martin watches.
(Ernest Coleman photo)
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''They made a run and I don't want to say we laid down and died,'' said UC's Melvin Levett, ''but we can't let teams make two, three, four runs in the course of a game.''
A 12-0 run put the Musketeers ahead 67-46 with 9:06 left. Xavier had answers for every Bearcat basket.
With 3:53 remaining, UC's Bobby Brannen was called for his fifth foul as Xavier guard Lenny Brown scored inside. Brannen remained on the court briefly before his slow stroll toward the bench. Levett clasped his hands behind his head and stared aimlessly toward the sellout crowd of 10,100. UC guard Michael Horton was bent over, grabbing at his shorts.
While all that was going on, the Musketeers were celebrating. High-fives all around. Unlike last year's last-second 71-69 victory over UC, Xavier left no doubts about this one.
''People said it was a fluke and all that,'' XU center Torraye Braggs, ''Just as far as getting respect in the city it was real big.'' Said James Posey: ''This year I expected to win. My teammates felt the same way. We didn't know by how much, but we knew we were going to beat them.''
Xavier (6-1) was led by their first-team All-Atlantic 10 Conference backcourt of Gary Lumpkin and Brown, who scored 23 points each. The two also combined for seven rebounds, nine assists and six steals.
The Bearcats (4-2) turned the ball over 29 times, the second-most in school history.
UC's Bobby Brannen agonizes on the bench after fouling out with five points.
(Saed Hindash photo)
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Levett led the Bearcats with 19 points. Ryan Fletcher came off the bench to score a career-high 17, and Brent Petrus, a UC football player, added a career-high 13.
''We knew we could come out and match them athlete for athlete, but we didn't do the little things, and they make you pay,'' Levett said.
Xavier held Cincinnati's top scorer D'Juan Baker (26 ppg) to just three points and eight turnovers, and Brannen (20.8 ppg) to five points and six turnovers.
''I'm embarrassed about the way I played,'' Brannen said. ''I couldn't get going, couldn't hit shots. It's real frustrating because we had a couple great days of practice.''
The game turned in one five-minute stretch in the first half. Xavier was clinging to a 23-21 lead with 8:11 to play before intermission. Then came the blitz - a 22-2 Xavier run, including a 16-0 stretch, during which the Bearcats scored on two of four free throws. They went 5:20 without and field goal and trailed by 22 with 3:04 left in the half.
It was 45-23, and UC spent the rest of the evening playing catchup.
''We knew once we got to their legs, they'd start making turnovers and slowing down while we were speeding up,'' Braggs said.
Darnell Williams and teammates celebrate.
(Saed Hindash photo)
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''The coaches kept saying, 'There go their legs, there go their legs.' '' UC had the upper hand inside in the first half when Braggs and Johnson got in foul trouble but couldn't take advantage. The roles reversed in the second half. UC center Kenyon Martin picked up three fouls in 7 1/2 minutes and fouled out with 12:30 left. Brannen was called for his fourth foul with 15:20 remaining and XU ahead by 11. When he returned close to six minutes later, Xavier's lead had reached 19.
''I think they ran out of guys, guys who could score,'' said Prosser, now 2-2 against UC.
Xavier's lead was 50-35 at halftime and it opened the second half by hitting just 1-of-8 shots and turning the ball over four times. The Musketeers had just two points in 7ï minutes, but Cincinnati could not get no closer than nine points.
''We talked all this week about planting our feet and making a stand and establishing who we are as a team, and I think we did that tonight,'' Johnson said. ''Our team showed great character. When they made their runs, instead of panicking we stood up to them.''
SHOOTOUT PAGE
CINCINNATI (68)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Levett 31 7-12 2-2 0-3 2 3 19
Brannen 30 1-6 3-6 1-3 1 5 5
Martin 15 1-2 0-0 1-4 2 5 2
Baker 28 0-3 3-4 0-3 1 2 3
Horton 38 1-6 1-2 0-1 5 3 3
Jackson 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 0
Myrick 14 2-4 2-2 1-2 1 4 6
Fletcher 19 5-9 6-11 3-4 2 2 17
Petrus 22 6-6 0-0 5-7 1 3 13
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TOTALS 200 23-48 17-27 11-27 15 29 68
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Percentages: FG-.479, FT-.630. 3-Point Goals:
5-15, .333 (Levett 3-6, Baker 0-2, Horton 0-2,
Myrick 0-2, Fletcher 1-2, Petrus 1-1). Team
rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: None. Turnovers: 29
(Baker 8, Brannen 6, Horton 5, Myrick 5, Martin
2, Jackson, Levett, Petrus). Steals: 6 (Myrick 2,
Brannen, Fletcher, Horton, Martin).
XAVIER (88)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Johnson 28 2-2 3-4 2-3 1 4 7
Williams 29 3-14 0-0 2-4 6 3 6
Braggs 26 4-4 6-8 2-5 2 4 14
L Brown 34 7-13 8-9 1-5 6 3 23
Lumpkin 36 6-12 8-9 2-2 3 1 23
Kelsey 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 0
Turner 3 0-0 1-2 0-0 0 1 1
Mcafee 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
A Brown 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Payne 8 2-2 0-1 0-0 0 2 4
Posey 27 4-6 2-2 3-6 0 3 10
Butler 1 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 1 0
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TOTALS 200 28-54 28-35 12-27 18 24 88
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Percentages: FG-.519, FT-.800. 3-Point Goals:
4-17, .235 (Williams 0-4, L Brown 1-5, Lumpkin
3-8). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: None.
Turnovers: 19 (Braggs 4, Lumpkin 4, Posey 3, L
Brown 2, Williams 2, Johnson, Kelsey, Payne).
Steals: 17 (Posey 5, L Brown 3, Lumpkin 3,
Williams 3, Johnson 2, Braggs).
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Cincinnati 35 33 - 68
Xavier 50 38 - 88
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Technical fouls: Cincinnati 1 (Jackson). Xavier
1 (Bench). A: 10,100. Officials: Tom Lopes,
Larry Lembo, Joe Demayo.
