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McNeal helps blitz Bearcats

MILWAUKEE — All Jerel McNeal could do was smile.

Having just knocked down his fifth three-pointer in as many tries in the first half Sunday, there was little else that would have expressed just how well things were rolling in what wound up being a ridiculously easy 84-50 victory over the Cincinnati Bearcats at the Bradley Center.

“It was looking real big early on,” the senior guard said with a laugh when asked how big the basket looked to him. “When you’re shooting like that you feel like all of them are going in. But really, after hitting a couple, my main focus was just getting everybody else involved.”

It was one of those rare days for McNeal.

Not only did he wind up scoring a game-high 26 points, setting an MU record by going 7 for 7 from beyond the arc in the process, he also dished out six assists. Five of them also resulted in three-pointers.

In all, MU (13-2, 2-0 Big East) knocked down 15 of 25 threes (60 percent), tying a school record reached most recently against Penn State on March 27, 1995. It was 9 for 15 (60 percent) in the opening 20 minutes alone.

That, coupled with a stifling defensive performance on all-Big East guard Deonta Vaughn, left Cincinnati (10-4, 0-1) with literally no chance. Vaughn went scoreless in 37 minutes, the first time that has ever happened to the junior

“Marquette shots lights out today. I don’t know if anybody in the country was going to beat them,” said coach Mick Cronin, whose team started out 1 for 15 from three-point range and finished 3 for 19. “The snowball started downhill and we weren’t able to stop it.”

Wesley Matthews added 17 points and Lazar Hayward 16 and another 4 three-pointers for the Golden Eagles, whose 34-point margin of victory was their largest in a conference game since winning at South Florida by 35 on Jan. 30, 1997.

But the story was McNeal, who started off his day by hitting a fallaway jumper to get MU out to a 2-0 lead. His next attempt was swatted by Yancy Gates as the Bearcats jumped ahead, 10-7, with 13 minutes 58 seconds left in the first half.

That wound up being his only miss on the afternoon.

Later in the first half he scored on a layup to pull MU even at 14-14, then followed that with a three from the top of the key to make it 17-14 with 8:06 left. After Alvin Mitchell answered with a three, McNeal hit his third from long distance, this time from the right wing to make it 20-17.

The Golden Eagles kept in front the rest of the way. McNeal, playing all 20 minutes of the first half, hit two more threes and MU went to the locker room after—what else?—a running three at the buzzer by Maurice Acker to take a 41-27 lead.

“We wanted them to shoot the threes,” said Vaughn, a statement categorically denied by Cronin later. “We figured we’ll let them shoot them, just contest them and in the second half they wouldn’t hit as much.”

Wrong.

The Golden Eagles came out of the locker room as hot as they were when they went in, getting three uncontested three-pointers from Hayward—who’d played just 5 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble—and another from Dominic James.

An NBA-range three from the left wing by McNeal kept the onslaught going, and by the time he’d hit his seventh and final trey, at the 12:27 mark, MU had gone on a 23-4 run that left it with a 64-31 lead. The Bearcats looked ready to pack up and go home.

The Golden Eagles led by as much as 40 before coach Buzz Williams began substituting more liberally and experimenting with different combinations. They wound up going 6 for 10 from beyond the arc after halftime, once again finishing at 60 percent.

“Every time they tried to make a run or get some momentum going, we hit a big shot,” said McNeal, who is 37 for 76 from three-point range this season (47.4 percent).

“It was one of those things where we made some big shots, getting us on track, and that made it harder for those guys to play through it.”

Yet as well as MU shot, Williams was quick to put the performance into perspective.

“I’m glad we made them, and that’s the way every team’s going to play us: ’Hey, shoot all those balls you want, and let’s turn it into a shooting contest,’ ” he said. “We’re not going to win like that. Because we’re not going to make 15.”

MU tied a season low with eight turnovers and fell just short of setting a season low by holding Cincinnati to 32.7% shooting.

Now 2-0 in the Big East for the first time in their four seasons in the conference, the Golden Eagles head out tonight for a game Wednesday at Rutgers.