The Cincinnati Bearcats rolled to a 23-5 lead and never gave it up as they downed Iowa 76-64 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis. Hawkeye coach Steve Alford says his team ran out of gas after a tough Big Ten tournament run to get in this game. He says you could tell they had to fight like crazy to get into the tournament and you could tell their legs weren’t where Cincinnati was. Iowa did cut the lead to three at one point, but Cincinnati’s pressure let them surge back into the lead.Alford says Cincinnati pressures hard, but not harder than Illinois. He says they just never got going and after they cut the lead to three, they took a bad three-point shot. Alford says his team showed its lack of NCAA Tournament experience. He says he thought there was a lot of inexperience and they just have to take the experience and build from it. Alford credits his team with not folding under the adversity they faced this year. Greg Brunner led Iowa with 20 points, Jeff Horner had 12. Iowa finishes the season at 21-12 overall.
