Cincinnati rallies over Prairie View A&M 69-62
CINCINNATI - CINCINNATI (AP) — One sight told the story: Deonta Vaughn sitting on the bench to start the second half.
That's how badly things were going for Cincinnati in its season opener.
The Bearcats' top returning scorer spent the opening minutes of the second half sitting on a folding chair, a message from the coach about his lack of effort. Vaughn then scored 12 of his 15 points down the stretch, helping Cincinnati rally from an early 15-point deficit to a 69-62 win over Prairie View A&M on Monday night.
Coach Mick Cronin made his point by benching his star, who missed all six of his shots in the opening half and played lackluster defense.
"I've just got to bring intensity and effort and play harder and focus on doing what I do as a leader on the team," Vaughn said. "It worked. I got more focused. Early on we were just nonchalant about it."
Inexplicably, the Bearcats overlooked their opponent in their season opener on their home floor. Prairie View A&M (1-1), which returns four starters, gave them all they could handle for most of the game.
The Bearcats blamed themselves for much of it.
"We didn't get prepared before the game," said Larry Davis, who added 13 points. "We sat around and didn't get ready for the game and just came out sluggish. We weren't warm, we weren't ready, we didn't have our minds on the game. We were kind of taking them for granted."
Vaughn made a layup and a pair of 3s during a 14-point run that put Cincinnati ahead to stay. The Bearcats also picked up their defensive pressure, holding the Panthers scoreless for 8:43. They missed 10 shots during the drought.
"They did a great job staying poised when we had them on the wall," Prairie View A&M coach Byron Rimm II said. "I'm very proud of what we did, especially about the first three-fourths of the game. Then we took a lot of bad shots."
Darnell Hugee led the Panthers with 16 points.
Cincinnati freshman forward Lance Stephenson missed his first four shots in his collegiate debut, then limped off after apparently hurting his left ankle. The prep star from Brooklyn returned and finished with seven points on 2-of-10 shooting from the field.
When he got the ball, Stephenson often tried to force a shot against a zone defense that wasn't about to give up much inside.
"I think he was a nervous wreck," Cronin said. "He'll get better. I've got to make sure he's not putting too much pressure on himself."
Vaughn could sense his frustration.
"Lance understands how hard it will be for him, being one of the top recruits Cincinnati has landed in a while," Vaughn said. "I could see he thinks there's a lot of pressure on him, and he's got to do some things."
The Bearcats had more of everything — height, depth and expectations — than the Panthers, who evened things up by doing things fundamentally correct. They boxed out after shots and kept up in rebounds during the opening half.
Cincinnati's defense was another matter. The Bearcats repeatedly gave up open shots on the perimeter and easy drives to the basket in the first half.
Out of sorts from the start, Cincinnati missed its first eight shots and had four turnovers, helping Prairie View A&M pull ahead 15-3. The Bearcats never got closer than six points the rest of the half.
When Duwan Kornegay's 3-pointer pushed the lead to 33-18 with 5:09 left in the half, Cronin called a timeout and the crowd of 6,777 booed loudly.
Vaughn changed things in the second half once he returned to the floor, helping Cincinnati surge ahead 47-46 — its first lead since the opening minutes. The Bearcats never trailed again, leading by as many as nine points.
"I didn't want to lose the season opener to Prairie View A&M and lose a chance to make the NCAA tournament, because this type of loss would have really set us back from our goal," Vaughn said.
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