The Cincinnati Bearcats (15-7 5-4) lost their 3rd consecutive Big East game at Rutgers on Saturday night 61-54.

After tough loses at West Virginia and home to Syracuse, the feeling was Cincinnati needed to come out hungry looking to get back on track. That simply was not the case throughout as Rutgers was the aggressor for most of the night.

“We started off the game and finished the game in the same way,” Associate head coach Larry Davis said on the post game radio show. “They got every loose ball and every loose rebound. In a game like this, which we knew was going to be a dog fight you've got to get every single opportunity you can to give yourself a chance to win.”

The Bearcats came into the game leading the league in fewest turnovers committed on the year, but gave it away 14 times allowing the Scarlet Knights to score 16 easy points in transition.

It was a trend that started early and set the tone for the game. Davis could sense there was going to be trouble after their first five possessions.

“We turned the ball over and gave them layups,” said Davis. “We started off the game it was layup, layup, layup, foul and offensive rebound. That was the first five possessions offensively for them. We gave up 42 points in the paint and free throws.”

One of the key match ups coming in was Cincinnati junior point guard Cashmere Wright (3 points on 1-7 shooting) against Rutgers freshman lead man Eli Carter (17 pts). While Wright struggled all night, Carter bounced back from a rough 1st half and made big plays late to ice it for the Scarlet Knights.

While Wright finished with 6 assists, he couldn't get the Bearcats into their zone offense in the 2nd half as Rutgers extended their 2-3 zone on shooters and left a void in the paint.

Yancy Gates (16 pts, 8 reb) started the 2nd half strong with two easy baskets to erase a 27-23 deficit, but from there he didn't see the ball outside of grabbing a couple offensive rebounds off the weak side of the zone.

“We didn't do a very good job offensively against the zone,” Davis said. “They kept spreading out on us and coach kept telling them we've got to get the ball inside to Yancy and we didn't get him the ball. We didn't look past the defenders and get the ball to him and let him go to work in there. He got it twice on offensive rebounds, but we didn't get the ball in to him.”

Rutgers tried to pull away with just under 4 minutes left as Carter hit his 4th triple of the half to give his team a 52-42 lead, but the Bearcats chipped away and were within 4 at 56-52 with 1:39 left.

That was as close as it would get however, as UC finished by missing their final 5 FG attempts and sputtered to the finish in their 3rd consecutive Big East defeat.

With a week off before DePaul visits 5/3 Arena next Saturday, there is some soul searching in order if this team is going to make a run in February and find its way back to the NCAA Tournament.

The hunger they displayed in winning 10 of 11 before the WVU loss is non existent at the moment, and Davis made a point to say if it doesn't return the team is in for a long 2nd half of Big East action.

“We've got a group in that locker room that has got to get their mental focus back to where it was after the Xavier game,” said Davis. “Right now we've got to come out for the rest of the season and play with extreme desperation the rest of the way if we're going to win games in the Big East.”