CINCINNATI — Wes Miller tried. The Cincinnati Bearcats head coach desperately clapped his hands throughout the first half and for the first ten minutes of the second half. But it was truly in vain on this night.
Travis Steele got the last word in this contest as the Xavier coach waved his hands up to the delirious crowd after his hero on this night – Jack Nunge – left with a game-high 31 points.
His team couldn’t shoot straight and the Xavier Musketeers couldn’t miss during key stretches in a 83-63 blowout win over Cincinnati Saturday night in the 33rd annual Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout at Cintas Center. Xavier’s margin of victory was its largest since the 23-point win in the Brawl Game ten years ago when the Musketeers prevailed, 76-53, at Cintas.
? | ???? ?????. #LetsGoX pic.twitter.com/dfzpL9BHXL
— Xavier Basketball (@XavierMBB) December 12, 2021
Nunge led Xavier (9-1) with 31 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and 11-of-15 shooting from the line. He also added 15 rebounds to post the double-double. Paul Scruggs added 14 for the Muskies who improved to 9-1 all-time against Cincinnati at Cintas.
Xavier shot over 70 percent for the final seven minutes of the first half, going on a 24-9 run to expand a 24-18 lead to 42-27 at the break.
“It’s unacceptable the way that we play in here tonight,” Miller said. “Again, you can’t take away how well Xavier played, because I think they played tremendous. I’m disappointed. We will come back. This team has a lot of character. We will come back to work. We will try to get back to playing the way we played for the last month or so. We need to use this to become a better team. We need to learn and grow from this.”
Scruggs becomes the first Xavier player to win four times against UC, as he has spent five years at Xavier.
Jack Nunge on his career night and Paul Scruggs making history as first Xavier player ever to beat UC four times. pic.twitter.com/Enoi2rY4wO
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) December 12, 2021
David Dejulius and John Newman III paced the Bearcats (7-3) with 14 points while David Dejulius added 12. Jeremiah Davenport chipped in with 11.
Miller said his Bearcats were unprepared for Xavier’s ball screen on defense and didn’t know how to attack Xavier’s zone defense on offense.
Wes Miller takes full responsibility for his team’s “unacceptable” performance against Xavier pic.twitter.com/VwZa4apyQ9
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) December 12, 2021
The Muskies won for the seventh time in nine meetings, 11 in the last 15 and 18 of the last 26. Cincinnati still leads the all-time series, 51-38.
