Just as they have all season, the Cincinnati Bearcats found a way to win a game that could have gone very wrong. On Friday, despite trailing for much of the first half, they endured and defeated the SMU Mustangs 82-74 in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament at FedExForum.
The second-seeded Bearcats struggled with the 10th-seeded Mustangs during the regular season as well, with their two contests decided by eight points combined. The Bearcats won both of those contests, but there was still real fear that they might fail to pull off another escape act on Friday.