The Cincinnati Bearcats (17-8 7-5) dropped a disappointing 95-78 decision to the Marquette Golden Eagles on Saturday afternoon.

Things looked promising early as the Bearcats raced out to a 16-4 lead, but it was all Marquette the rest of the way as they turned up the pressure and scored 16 first half points off turnovers to take a 47-35 lead at the break.

After turning it over 9 times in the first 20 minutes, the offense was better in the 2nd half as they only turned it over 5 times. The problem was Marquette took full advantage of those miscues and turned it in to 9 points to keep momentum on their side for the remainder of the night.

“You turn the ball over and give the other team 25 points off turnovers,” Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin said after the defeat. “We didn't give ourselves much of a chance today because of our turnovers and our porous defense.”

Defense was just as big a concern as the turnovers for most of the night. The 95 points was the most allowed by UC since March of 2008 and was a mix of allowing the Golden Eagles to get in transition and not being able to stop them in the half court with man or zone.

“Their 31 fast break points (was) the difference in the game,” said Cronin. “Because of their team speed and no big man it was a tough match up for us to play man to man which we found out in the 2nd half. We couldn't guard them at all.”

When Cincinnati got set and ran their offense, it was very effective for most of the game.

There were five players in double figures including a team high 15 from both Dion Dixon and JaQuon Parker. Cashmere Wright was next in line with 14 while Yancy Gates added 11 and Justin Jackson had 10.

For a team that has struggled to score at times this season, the 78 points should have been good enough to pick up a win.

“We scored 43 in the 2nd half and when we didn't turn it over we got almost any shot we wanted,” Cronin said. “We got to the line 26 times and never struggled to get what we wanted offensively.”

After leading by 12 early, the 24 point swing the rest of the half put the Cats in a hole, but it was one Cronin felt they could climb out of if they buckled down on the defensive end.

That never materialized as the lead was never below 8 even though UC was playing well on the offensive end.

“I told the team at halftime we are going to score enough points to win this game,” said Cronin. “I told our team if we hold them to 30 points in the 2nd half we can win the game. We just couldn't get the job done.”

The two teams meet again at 5/3rd Arena on February 29th, and they are going to have to do a much better job on Darius Johnson-Odom and Jae Crowder went for 23 a piece.

Stopping their two best players is the key to picking up an important late season win after what was a poor performance on Saturday afternoon, and Cronin will have his work cut out for himself in figuring it out.

“We've got to learn from it,” Cronin said. “We play them again in the not too distant future.”

Cincinnati returns to action against Providence at 5/3rd Arena at 9 pm Wednesday night.