Souley Boum made three late free throws and visiting Xavier pulled out a thrilling 80-77 win over Cincinnati in the 90th edition of their crosstown rivalry.
David DeJulius had capped a furious rally by the Bearcats (6-4) with a banked-in 3-pointer with 11 seconds left. He was fouled on the play and his free throw tied the game at 77-77.
Boum answered for the Musketeers (7-3), driving to the basket and drawing a foul with 1.4 seconds left. He made the first free throw before missing the second.
Cincinnati then intentionally called timeout with no timeouts remaining and was assessed a technical. Boum made both and the Bearcats’ inbounds pass was deflected with 0.7 seconds left and time finally expired.
Boum finished with a game-high 21 points. Jack Nunge added 18, Colby Jones scored 15 and Zach Freemantle had 14 points and 12 rebounds for Xavier, which won for the fourth straight time in the rivalry.
DeJulius had 22 to pace Cincinnati, which hosted the game before a frenzied, sellout crowd for the first time since December 2018 due to the pandemic. Viktor Lahkin had 16 points and eight rebounds for the Bearcats.
Xavier raced out to leads of 13-1 and 25-10 thanks to the 3-point shooting of Adam Kunkel and Boum.
Cincinnati started out ice cold, hitting just two of their first 13 shots from the field. The Bearcats’ backcourt duo of Jeremiah Davenport and DeJulius were a combined 2 for 13 in the first half.
Xavier had its biggest lead of the half at 41-24 on a put-back layup from Freemantle with 41 seconds left before the break. Boum had 13 points in the first half.
The Bearcats scored the first five points of the second half and the crowd became a major factor. A DeJulius layup with 15:36 remaining capped a 9-2 Cincinnati run that cut Xavier’s lead to 49-40.
After Xavier briefly built the lead back to 13, Cincinnati’s Landers Nolley II brought the crowd to its feet when he drove the lane, was fouled and slammed home a dunk with 7:13 left. The three-point play brought UC within 63-57.
–Field Level Media
