Cincinnati outpaces Blue Raiders, 89-54

Saturday, December 20

Cincinnati, Ohio

5:05 PM

Middle Tennessee

Cincinnati

12/20/2003 9:21:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: MT Media Relations

The Blue Raiders suffered their third loss of the season Saturday evening, falling 89-54 to the No. 16 Cincinnati Bearcats on the road. Mike Dean led Middle Tennessee with 21 points, scoring six 3-pointers on the night.

Middle Tennessee led four times within the first six minutes before the deep Cincinnati team began to pull away with a furious defensive effort. The Bearcats capitalized on 25 Blue Raider turnovers, scoring 35 points off the errors. Cincinnati turned the ball over four times.

"Offensively we were hit or miss and we kind of got down on ourselves," head coach Kermit Davis said following the game. "Our team is going to be fine and we're going to learn from this. Cincinnati is one of ten or fifteen teams with a chance to make the Final Four."

Senior Tommy Gunn led MT in rebounding, capturing seven boards to go along with his 12 point offensive performance. Junior Michael Cuffee added 10 points and snatched seven rebounds.

The Blue Raiders return to Murphy Center for one last game before the Christmas holiday, facing Austin Peay Tuesday night at 7 p.m.