NCAA Tournament: Second-seeded Cincinnati holds off pesky 15 seed Georgia State
Cincinnati guard Jacob Evans, forward Tre Scott and forward Gary Clark celebrate against Georgia State in the NCAA Tournament in Nashville, Tenn., Friday. Credit: AP / Mark Humphrey
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The scoreboard hanging above the Bridgestone Arena court seemed to suggest that even the improbable was very, very possible.
Sure, there was the actual score — 15th-seeded Georgia State took a number of significant leads Friday as it tried to fight off No. 2 Cincinnati in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. But there also was the fact that during most long timeouts, and a chunk of halftime, the wizards who control this sort of thing showcased the huge upset happening more than 2,000 miles away, where 13th-seeded Marshall was in the process of stunning fourth-seeded Wichita State.
If Marshall could do it, why couldn’t Georgia State?
Well, because Cincinnati proved it can adapt when things start going haywire, and because Jarron Cumberland wasn’t going to let this game slip away.
Georgia State gave Cincinnati a good scare, going ahead with less than 11 minutes left, but behind Cumberland’s 27 points, the Bearcats earned a 68-53 victory. Cumberland added 11 rebounds, eight offensive, and Gary Clark had 11 points and 13 rebounds.
“It’s easy to make adjustments during a game when guys know that that’s the key to winning basketball games,” Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. “Early on, we were trying to win with jump-shooting. That’s not who we are. Once we got back to focusing on what we do to win games, we started looking like the team that we are.”
Cincinnati (31-4) controlled the glass, managed to partially contain D’Marcus Simonds and used its physicality to gas a Georgia State team that looked to be on its last legs late.
“We were tired not because we weren’t in shape. The physicality of Cincinnati finally wore on us a little bit,” Panthers coach Ron Hunter said. “ . . . If we’d hit a couple of those looks that we had, it could have been a different outcome.”
Georgia State built a 20-14 lead with 10:33 left in the first half but hit a cold snap and went 2-for-10 from the field, including a missed dunk. It struggled to adapt to Cincinnati’s defense, which switched to a zone. Simonds was held to six points in the second half after scoring 18 in the first.
Georgia State (24-11) did take a one-point lead on Simonds’ jumper with 10:37 left in the game, but the Bearcats scored 12 of the next 14 points. Cincinnati — which will play seventh-seeded Nevada in the South Regional on Sunday — outrebounded Georgia State 46-26, including 20 on the offensive glass.
“In this game, we had to adjust,” Clark said. “In every game, that’s how it’s going to be. You’ve got to adjust to how the team’s doing. Our adversity allows us to do that well.”
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
