Former KC star helping Bearcats win
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
From the University of Cincinnati Athletics

McGOWAN

CINCINNATI, Ohio The University of Cincinnati basketball team began its inaugural journey in the prestigious and powerful BIG EAST Conference in impressive fashion on Wednesday night with a convincing 82-60 win over fellow league newcomer DePaul, 8260 at Fifth Third Arena.

And a former Kilgore College Runnin’ Ranger is helping lead the way.

Junior Cedric McGowan, who just a year ago was an hono r a b l e mention A l l American for KC, scored 13 points — a career high at UC — a n d p u l l e d down 20 rebounds for the Bearcats, who were to play at Marquette on Saturday, and at UConn Monday.

That Monday night game gives KC fans a chance to watch McGowan again — it’s a part of ESPN’s Big Monday college basketball coverage. It will be aired on ESPN, beginning at 6 p.m.

UC won its ninth straight game and manhandled the visiting Blue Demons in all phases of the game, taking control of the game late in the first half before putting an exclamation point on the victory with a dominating second half. Cincinnati shot 51 percent in the second half and out-rebounded the taller Demons 3016 after halftime.

The Bearcats, 12-2 overall and 1-0 in conference play, led 35-23 at halftime and put the game on ice by hitting DePaul with a 16-5 run in the first 4:36 of the second stanza to send the Blue Demons to their 15th straight loss in Cincinnati. DePaul fell to 7-5 and 0-1 in BIG EAST play.

File photo by Joel Dryer/ Kilgore College NOT IN OUR HOUSE — Former Kilgore College player Cedric McGowan (above, No. 33) is shown here when he played for the Rangers, playing defense along with current Ranger Marcus Hubbard. McGowan is adding to the University of Cincinnati Bearcats winning tradition on the court.

The power forward duo of senior Eric Hicks and McGowan, along with the instant offense off the bench from senior guard Jihad Muhammad (also a former Region XIV Conference standout) was all the Bearcats needed to post their 12th straight conference-opening win going back to their days in Conference USA (10 straight) and one year in the Great Midwest Conference.

Hicks shared game-high scoring honors with Muhammad with 20 points to go along with his season-high 15 rebounds, while McGowan matched his career-best with 13 points and had a career-high 20 rebounds, the most by a Bearcat player since former All-American and Player of the Year Kenyon Martin had 23 rebounds against DePaul on Feb. 21, 1998. Muhammad’s 20-point outburst was a season-high.

The double-double for Hicks was his second straight, fourth of the season, and 17th of his career, while McGowan, who has been close a couple of occasions this season, posted his first career double-double in a Bearcat uniform.

“Two guys really brought it tonight Cedric is our best defensive rebounder and he had 14 off the glass, and Eric is much better on the offensive glass and he was huge with 12 offensive boards,” said UC head coach Andy Kennedy. “Cedric has been steady for us since day one. He is a fantastic kid and works hard in practice and earns the right to be productive in games.”

McGowan is a Miami, Fla., native who is currently second on the Bearcats’ squad in rebounding. He played for the KC Rangers in 2004 and 2005, where he averaged 15.1 points and 5.9 rebounds per game for coach Scott Schumacher’s team. He was also first-team all-conference.

His time at Cincinnati hasn’t been without some problems. The Miami native suffered a shoulder injury on Dec. 23 in a win over LSU, but has been back in a big way, averaging 11.7 points and 10.7 rebounds in the three games since the injury.

McGowan’s old team, the Rangers, were on the road Saturday night for an important game at Lee College, and will be on the road once more on Wednesday night in Pasadena to face San Jacinto College.

The Runnin’ Rangers are 1-2 in Region XIV Conference play, and both games are huge, despite the fact that it’s still relatively early in the conference schedule. Both games will air live on the college’s radio station, KTPB. Saturday night’s game at Lee was to tip off at 7 p.m. Wednesday’s game at SJC tips off at 7:30.

The Lady Rangers, coached by Contina James, were to host Eastern Oklahoma Saturday night, and will also be on the road at San Jacinto (in Houston) on Wednesday.