A frustrating season came to a close for the Cincinnati Bearcats Monday night as they fell to the Dayton Flyers in the second round of the NIT, 81-66. The Bearcats ended the season with a record of 19-16.
Monday's game was also the last collegiate game for senior Deonta Vaughn. Vaughn finished the game with a season-high 28 points to pull ahead of Danny Fortson for 3rd all time in Cincinnati scoring.
"My four years have been great," said Vaughn, who finished with 1,885 points, 4 more than Fortson. "I learned a lot about basketball. I matured a lot since I came here and did a lot of great things to try to help this program get back to where it needs to be."
Vaughn passed Fortson with two free throws with 1:04 remaining and received a standing ovation when he left the game with 19 seconds remaining. Unfortunately, it was the one bright spot of the evening for the 'Cats.
Poor shooting by the Bearcats - and hot shooting by the Flyers - led to a huge first-half deficit for UC. After falling behind by 17, however, the Bearcats managed to climb to within 1 point of UD but never took the lead.
The Flyers (22-12) made eight of their first 12 shots from behind the arc to get the big lead, and survived a second-half Cincinnati comeback before pulling away to their most lopsided win over the Bearcats in 25 years.
It was only their third win over Cincinnati in their last 17 games in the southwest Ohio rivalry.
"We definitely underestimated them," said freshman Lance Stephenson, who said he would return for another season. "We knew they played hard, but we didn't know they played with that much intensity."
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