By Kristina Goetz
The Cincinnati Enquirer

When Skyline Chili offers basketballs as a side dish and Busken Bakery stirs up a cookie rivalry, it can only mean one thing.

It's time for the Crosstown Shootout, the most exciting Cincinnati sporting event between the end of football season and Opening Day.

Kathy Wilson from Newport sprays on Xavier logos (left) as Cami Smith of Milford paints on UC logos as they make Crosstown Cookies at Busken Bakery. (Glenn Hartong photo)

At 7 tonight, the Xavier Musketeers will host the Cincinnati Bearcats at Xavier University's Cintas Center in the teams' 71st matchup for hometown bragging rights. UC leads the series, 45-25.

Patrick Eagan, a 25-year-old UC graduate student, grew up with the rivalry. His dad went to UC and his mom attended Xavier. Every year the extended family gets together to watch the game.

"I'm pulling for the Cats," he said. "I've been a Cats fan ever since the early '90s. It's always a great time of year. We watch the game and poke at each other about it."

2004 CROSSTOWN SHOOTOUT

SPORTS • Tonight, one trend has to end • XU disputes Huggins' claims • Bobbitt is Mr. Impact • Crosstown Matchups: A position-by-position look • Coaches' oaths • Storylines to keep your eyes on • Xavier's Chalmers: We still have bragging rights NEWS • Crosstown staples: cookies, chili, rivalry EDITORIAL PAGE • Shootout more than 'just one game'

For the uninitiated, here are a few signs that a Shootout is coming:

•  Skyline Chili starts selling the 12,000 Crosstown Shootout basketballs it markets every year in mid-November because they make good Christmas gifts, said Tom Allen, vice president for marketing at Skyline.

•  By late Monday afternoon, UC was winning the cookie sale countdown to game time 768-656, with more people stocking up on Busken Bakery's signature iced cookie with the Bearcat paw logo.

"A lot of times it can predict who wins," said Cathy Lang, sales production coordinator at Busken.

•  The Crosstown Helpout.

Last week, hundreds of students, alumni and friends of both institutions split up into teams to provide cleanup and repairs to local schools, agencies and community centers.

Mason Intermediate School art teacher John Benham (upper right) works with fifth graders Monday morning as they finish a collage of the Xavier University logo. 100 students have spent about 12 weeks designing and constructing the projects, having also done the UC logo. (Glenn Hartong photo)

•  For the third year in a row, alumni from both schools sent care packages filled with a basketball autographed by both UC coach Bob Huggins and Xavier coach Thad Matta, a Xavier golf shirt, a UC windbreaker and bobblehead and Skyline Chili to be given away at Shootout parties in 33 cities across the country.

•  Conversations turn to bigger-than-life moments in the series: The Shot, Lenny Brown's game-winner to beat UC in 1996. The Handshake, which Bob Huggins and Pete Gillen didn't exchange in 1994. The Prediction, when UC's Terry Nelson correctly forecast a UC rout in 1992.

What about this year? Eagan, the UC grad student, offered his prediction for a Bearcat victory and a phrase to remember the win.

"Maybe a feeding frenzy," he said.

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Reporter Michael D. Clark contributed. E-mail kgoetz@enquirer.com