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No. 8 Cincinnati comes back to beat No. 24 Pitt

Cincinnati v Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH, PA - DECEMBER 31: Cashmere Wright #1 of the Cincinnati Bearcats drives to the basket against Lamar Patterson #21 of the Pittsburgh Panthers during the game at Petersen Events Center on December 31, 2012 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

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Big East play kicked off at noon on New Years Eve, and while midnight may bring us a new year, it looks like some things haven’t changed in Pittsburgh.

The No. 24 Panthers lost to No. 8 Cincinnati 70-61 at the Peterson Events Center, as Mick Cronin’s club got 47 combined points from Cashmere Wright, JaQuan Parker and Sean Kilpatrick.

This was a far cry from the way that Pitt hoped to start the Big East campaign. Coming off of a thoroughly disappointing season, the Panthers entered this game with a 12-1 record and took a 34-26 lead into the break. But a combination of defensive breakdowns and offensive struggles allowed Cincinnati to scrap their way back into the game.

The biggest question now becomes whether or not Pitt is truly a tournament caliber team. Their best win on the season right now is either Lehigh or Detroit, which is to say that Jamie Dixon’s club has quite a bit of work to do in Big East play. And as good as the Bearcats are, it’s not exactly a promising sign that Pitt is blowing leads at home to conference foes.

As far as Cincinnati is concerned, this win is a great way to erase the home loss to New Mexico from their memory. The Bearcats have issues with scoring in the paint -- they literally do not have a single back-to-the-basket threat -- but their guards are excellent scorers, they defend, they score in transition and they can get to the glass on both ends of the floor.

They’ll struggle in matchups with teams that can get out and defend on the perimeter and they’ll get beat on the nights that their threes don’t drop, but this is still a really good team that is going to win a lot of games.

Pitt may be in the midst of a bad stretch, but picking up a win in the ‘Pete’ is never an easy thing to do.

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.