CINCINNATI SPORTS LAST WEEK

On Monday, Xavier announced that they had received four signed National Letters of Intent for incoming freshmen next year. They include Kenny Frease, a 7'0" 265 lb center from Massilon Perry H.S.; Brian Walsh, a 6'4" guard/forward from Pennsylvania; Brad Redford, a 6'0" guard from Michigan; and Mark Lyons, a 6'1" point guard from New Hampshire.


On Tuesday night, Xavier met Coppin State College at home as part of the Chicago Invitational Challenge. The tourney will conclude this weekend at the Sears Center. The Muskies had an eleven point lead over the Eagles just like they had over Miami in their last outing. This time they ran off 23 straight points to start the second half and cruised to a 98-49 win. XU had five players in double figures.


Baseball America released its list of the top ten Reds prospects. They are as follows:
1. Jay Bruce 2. Homer Bailey 3. Joey Votto 4. Johnny Cueto 5. Drew Stubbs 6. Devin Mesoraco 7. Todd Frazier 8. Juan Francisco 9. Josh Roenicke 10. Matt Maloney


On Friday night, Xavier met Kent State in the second round of the Chicago tourney and won a fairly close game 78-65. Josh Duncan had 20 points against the Golden Flashes and Derrick Brown had a double-double.


The UC basketball team played Fairfield University of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference on Saturday afternoon at Firth Third Arena and came away with a close 69-64 win. This year, even mediocre mid-major teams make the Bearcats sweat. Freshman Rashad Bishop had 12 points to lead the Cats.


In Chicago on Saturday evening, the Musketeers shut down one of the best freshman in the country and marked a place for themselves among the best teams in the land by whipping highly rated Indiana University 80-65. Stanley Burrell held super newcomer Eric Gordon to 20 points (his first below 30 this year) while C.J. Anderson and B.J. Raymond had 19 each for the Muskies.


In the Carrier Dome on Saturday night, the football Bearcats completed their first nine win season since 1953 by overwhelming the Orange of Syracuse 52-31. Quarterback Ben Mauk threw for a personal best 431 yards and four touchdowns. Freshman wide receiver Marcus Barnett set a school record with his 13th touchdown reception and Mauk now holds the record for touchdown passes. All that is left is to find out what bowl bid they will accept.


St Xavier high school moved into the state finals next week with a hard fought 10-7 win over Dublin Coffman at Dayton's Welcome Stadium. Both Anderson and Monroe lost their semi-final games and are finished.


The Reds are making a splash with the unconfirmed report that they have signed stopper Francisco Cordero for a cool $46 mil for four years. The value of relief pitchers has gone up immensely in the last few years. Hopefully, we can cut down on all those 8th-inning losses.

On Sunday afternoon at Paul Brown Stadium, the Bengals played the way the faithful expected them to play all year. The 'men in stripes' thoroughly manhandled the Tennessee Titans 35-6 to bring their record to 4-7. Chad Johnson caught 12 passes including three TD passes and became the Bengals all-time leader in receptions. Carson Palmer had the highest completion percentage of his career, the running game was back and the defense was strong in the red zone. What could have been....