They stamped their new league as legitimate by advancing to the 1992 Final Four and then reconfirmed its strength last March by taking North Carolina into overtime in the East Regional Final.
So it mattered little that Cincinnati’s Bearcats were struggling some this season. When Marquette visited their Shoemaker Center Thursday night, they were still the Great Midwest’s flagship team.
They were still the team the 22nd-ranked Warriors had not defeated in their last five tries, still the team the first-place Warriors needed to beat to authenticate their own status. That was the Warriors’ aim, to beat the reigning champ, and that is just what they did, hanging on to defeat Cincy (15-7, 3-4) 61-60.
Jim McIlvaine and Roney Eford, with 18 apiece, led the Warriors (16-5, 7-1) in this rugged affair, while freshman Dontonio Wingfield led the Bearcats with 17. McIlvaine, a force all night, also added eight blocks and 11 rebounds.
Over the season, Marquette’s offense was given to inconsistency and Cincinnati’s defense given to hostility.
Those facts alone promised a night of heads butting and bodies bumping rather than a night of beauty. And that is surely how it began. Marquette turned over the ball on its first three possessions. Wingfield, Cincinnati’s star, missed his first four shots, including three threes.
The Warriors turned over the ball eight times in the first 10 minutes and struggled to get 11 points in that stretch. The Bearcats shot 6 for 19 in the first 10 minutes and struggled to get 14 points in that stretch.
On a night of defense, the 7-foot-1-inch McIlvaine quickly made himself the center of defense. With just over two minutes gone, he blocked Cincy center Mike Harris twice on the same possession. Two minutes later, he blocked Harris again, and before the half arrived, he had himself a full half-dozen.
His work was spectacular and done in the sky, but down below, where fingernails get dirty, equally effective work was being done as well. Cincinnati, in style, attacked, trapped, contested every pass. The Warriors, not given to attacking, laid back, positioned themselves, let no shot get off without a hand in its way.
The Bearcats led at the half by a turn-of-the-century score of 25-20, and their LaZelle Durden, with 11, was the only player in double figures. MicIlvaine, with seven, was the Warriors’ leading scorer, and he would continue to carry them as this one rocked into the second half.
He was blocking shots, altering shots, and then, with 16:04 remaining, he laid home an offensive rebound to pull Marquette even at 28. Wingfield, held to just two points in the first half, awakened now, and in the next two minutes hit a pair of threes and a 15-footer.
That pushed the Bearcats back up 36-30, but here came McIlvaine again, this time with a dunk, another dunk and a free throw. Twelve minutes remained now, the Warriors were down one, and but a single thing was clear.
The winner of this one would not be a beauty king.
