Crosstown Shootout

Crosstown Shootout
SportMen's basketball
First meeting1927
Xavier 29, Cincinnati 25
Latest meetingDecember 5, 2025
Xavier 79, Cincinnati 74
Next meetingTBD
Statistics
Meetings total93
All-time seriesCincinnati leads 52–41
Largest victoryCincinnati: 30 points (1964–65)
Longest win streakCincinnati, 12 (1956–1967)
Current win streakXavier, 1 (2025–present)
2km
1.2miles
Xavier
Cincinnati
Locations of Cincinnati and Xavier

The Crosstown Shootout is an annual men's college basketball game played between the University of Cincinnati Bearcats and Xavier University Musketeers. The two schools are separated by 3 miles (4.8 km) in Cincinnati, making the archrivalry one of the closest major rivalries in the country. The game was first played in 1927, and has been played every year since 1946. In recent years, the game has been sponsored by Skyline Chili.

Throughout its history, the game has been played at six different venues including the Armory Fieldhouse and Fifth Third Arena on the UC campus; and the Schmidt Field House and Cintas Center on the Xavier campus. However, the majority of the games have been played at two other sites—Cincinnati Gardens and US Bank Arena. The Gardens has served as the regular home court for both schools at different times, and was even shared by both teams from 1987 to 1989. US Bank Arena was UC's home court from 1976 to 1987 when it was known as Riverfront Coliseum.

From 1989 to 2011, the game alternated between the schools' on-campus arenas. After the 2011 Crosstown Shootout brawl at the Cintas Center, the series was moved to US Bank Arena as a neutral site for two seasons before resuming as an on-campus series.