Recap: Cincinnati 84 BYU 66

Two weeks ago, Cincinnati walked off the Marriott Center floor in Provo, Utah physically and mentally beaten down. The Bearcats had just been ran off the floor, 80-52, and questions began to be asked about the team's effort and intensity. To make matters worse, BYU added salt to the wound with an uncontested three just before the buzzer sounded to put an exclamation point on their convincing victory over Wes Miller's team.

 

UC lost two more games after that and were in serious need of a reset on their season. 

 

(Photos: Taylor Keeton / RiverfrontU)

 

On Wednesday night, Cincinnati showed signs of a team still fighting to get things back on track with a 10-point Quad 1 road win at UCF.

 

That fight carried over to Saturday night as Cincinnati (14-9, 4-8 Big 12) walked off the Fifth Third Arena floor with a convincing 84-66 win over Kevin Young's BYU Cougars (15-8, 6-6 Big 12). 

 

"I thought our guys played really well tonight," Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller said following the game. "They were confident and aggressive. I thought Day Day and Jizzle really set a tone early in the game for that, making plays for themselves, making plays for others."

 

James finished with a game and season-high 24 points in the UC win, making 6-of-8 3-point attempts to key a 10-of-20 showing by the Bearcats from deep.

 

(Photos: Taylor Keeton / RiverfrontU )

 

Thomas scored 15 points on an efficient 7-of-9 shooting, while Josh Reed added 12 points off the bench.

 

"Josh was fantastic," Miller said. "That's the best game of his career to date. As I told them in the locker room, it won't be the best game of his career soon because it's not a fluke. He's been improving and we've always known he was capable of this. It was great to see it happen out there in a big time college basketball game."

 

When James was asked about the motivation behind the intensity both him and his team played with and if the uncontested last second shot by BYU in Provo played a role in how he began the game, he responded with a quick "definitely."

 

"It definitely added some fire in us," James said. "We felt disrespected so we were just glad we got another chance at them to even things out 1-1."

 

 

While James went on to say he doesn't get into the back and forth between players and teams, both him and his team didn't forget that feeling as the clock expired.

 

"If you disrespect us, we're going to remember that. If we get a chance to play you again, that's going to be on our minds."

 

Cincinnati put on an offensive clinic throughout the game, shooting 62.5% during the first half and 55.9% during the second half. It was a stark contrast from the type of effort seen in the second half in the first meeting between the two teams. 

 

 

"Give them credit and give Coach Miller credit. He had his guys ready to go," BYU Coach Kevin Young said. "They came out and punched us in the face. I actually thought we did a really good job responding to the onslaught at the beginning of the game. To somehow have the lead at halftime with them making every shot was a credit to our guys, but we couldn't sustain it in the second half. They were amazing. They played an amazing offensive game."

 

Cincinnati was outscored 8-0 over the final 1:10 of the first half, but quickly erased a 3-point halftime deficit by outscoring BYU 22-2 during the first 7:13 of the second half. 

 

"I thought in the second half, we didn't dwell on how the first half ended," Miller explained. "I was proud of that. I thought we really made some adjustments defensively and we didn't have errors and made their shot quality drop to start the second half."

 

BYU was outscored 45-24 during the second half and were limited to an 8-of-24 showing from the field, while making 5 of their 19 3-point attempts. 

 

Leading scorer Richie Saunders was held to 15 points on 1-of-6 from deep, while freshman phenom Egor Demin scored 12 points, also making 1-of-6 from deep. The duo combined for 36 points and made 8-of-15 from deep during the first game between the two programs.

 

"Dillon (Mitchell) did a terrific job (on Demin)," Miller explained. " We challenged Dillon to take that match up on and Dillon did a really nice job. Josh did a really nice job, too. It wasn't just Dillon. Our guys did a nice job adjusting from what we learned in game one."

 

 

The key stat of the night was Cincinnati outscoring BYU 16-0 in second chance points. The Bearcats collected 11 offensive rebounds and out-rebounded BYU 32-17. UC was also able to outscore BYU 24-12 in points from turnovers.

 

 

"They have the expectation to play with that type of energy and that type of competitiveness," Miller explained. "They know they're capable of it. I think at times if it's looked like it hasn't been there, I don't think it's from a lack of want to or try. I think sometimes they've carried the frustrations of playing in the Big 12 on their shoulders too much and you can see it in other areas. This week they've let all of that go and just gone out and played. "

 

Cincinnati will try to win their third straight game in Big 12 play for the first time since joining the Big 12 on Tuesday night when the Utah Utes come to Fifth Third Arena for a return game after defeating the Bearcats in Salt Lake City, 69-66, January 28th. 

 

"These guys are playing better basketball. They're playing confidently," Miller exclaimed when describing the change in his team over the last week. " They're playing more together, they're playing with the spirit we've always known they were capable of."

 

"There's a lot of pressure with outside noise that goes around," James said when talking about the confidence of the team currently. "Coach (Miller) reminded us to have fun. Do what we love since we was kids. We're at the highest level. Just take a moment to realize where our feet are and just being blessed to play college basketball."

 

Game Notes:

First half:

 

17:02- Wes Miller calls a timeout following consecutive possessions where UC gives up straight line drives to the basket for easy baskets. Cincinnati trailed 9-5 early after answering BYU's 5-0 run to open the game with a 5-0 run of their own on a three by Jizzle James and jumper by Day Day Thomas. 

 

15:27- Cincinnati takes a 12-11 lead following the second made 3-poiinter by Jizzle James. The three by James was the fifth straight make for the Bearcats after missing their first attempt of the game. BYU also made five of their first seven field goal attempts. 

 

13:09- Josh Reed makes all three free throw attempts after being fouled by Kanon Catchings. Reed made a second chance three from the wing on the next UC possession to give him six straight pointsxtend. Reed's three prompted a BYU timeout as the UC lead was now 22-13 at 12:19.

 

 

6:37- BYU trails 31-28 after a 6-0 run over 1:48. UC extended their lead to 31-22 on three's by Jizzle James and CJ Fredrick but did not score over the next 2:23, missing all four field goal attempts. BYU was also shooting 70.6% from the field at this point, also making 4-of-6 from three. 

 

3:34- UC leads 33-32 after Jizzle James makes his fifth straight shot to stop a 10-0 run by BYU. Bearcats went over five minutes without a point during the BYU run, turning the ball over four times, while also missing all four field goal attempts. BYU regained the lead out of the media timeout on two free throws by Richie Saunders. 

 

2:22- Tyler Betsey makes a shot on an inbounds from Jizzle James with :01 second on the shot clock to extend the UC lead to 37-34. UC extends their lead to 39-34 on the next possession on a dunk by Bandaogo.

 

 

1:10- BYU ends a stretch of 4:43 without a field goal on a turnaround hook shot by Traore. Traore's basket would be the beginning of an 8-0 run over the final 1:10 by the Cougars. Egor Demin's four-point play after a foul by Josh Reed on a made three with :03 seconds remaining in the half gave BYU a 42-39 halftime lead. UC had two turnvoers and just one field goal attempt during BYU's half closing run. 

 

Second half

 

17:12- Dillon Mitchell makes two free throws following a three by Lukosius to give the Bearcats a 50-44 lead. UC used a 7-0 run over 1:30 to regain control following the breakdown at the end of the first half.  Day Day Thomas extended the UC lead to 52-44 at 16:05. 

 

15:47- BYU hasn't scored in 3:02 and have three turnovers during the drought. Keba Keita misses both free throw attempts out of the media timeout and Simas Lukosius extends the lead to 10 on the next UC possession. 

 

 

12:47- A three by Jizzle James and dunk by Josh Reed off a BYU turnover forces a BYU timeout. The dunk by Reed extended the UC lead to 61-44 and their run to 18-0 over 5:37. BYU had four turnovers and five misses from the field during their 6:02 scoring drought that allowed the Bearcats to turn the beginning of the second half into a double digit lead. 

 

11:11- UC leads 63-49 after a three by Trey Steward and layup by Mihailo Boskovic to end the BYU scoring drought. After having 8 first half turnovers, UC had zero to this point in the second half and were outscoring the Cougars 12-0 in points off turnovers.

 

8:04- Three's by Kanon Catchings and Mihailo Boskovic key a 6-0 run over :38 seconds to cut the UC lead to 66-58. BYU made 5-of-6 field goal attempts following an almost seven-minute scoring drought. 

 

5:16- UC extends their lead to 75-59 after a 6-0 run over 1:11. Dan Skillings scored on consecutive possessions during the run, off a feed from Lukosius for a layup and a putback off his own miss.

 

 

4:18- Jizzle James makes his sixth three of the game to extend the UC lead to 78-61. After two free throws from Richie Saunders, Jizzle scored on the next UC possession to extend the lead to 80-63 with 3:54 left on the clock. 

 

2:10- Dan Skillings' putback off a missed lob attempt to Dillon Mitchell extends the UC lead to 82-63. Skillings extended the lead to 84-63 on the next Bearcat possession on a baseline drive and finish. 

 

0:47- Boskovic cuts the UC lead to 84-66 with a three-pointer and the final basket of the game. BYU made just 1 of their final 7 field goal attempts. 

 

Post Game Video: Wes Miller, Josh Reed, Jizzle James 

 

 

Postgame Video: Kevin Young, Richie Saunders

Final Thoughts:

 

Wes Miller's team has now responded to outside criticism with their two best performances of the year as they continue to instill hope in a fanbase that this team still has what it takes to turn things around. It won't be easy with the remaining schedule that Cincinnati has left, but there are at least signs that they are capable

 

Aziz Bandaogo is averaging 12 ppg over his last two games after scoring 9 points against BYU and 16 against UCF. Dan Skillings has embraced his role off the bench and got back to his old self pulling down four offensive rebounds and scoring eight points in 21 minutes against BYU.

 

Winning breeds confidence. With eight games left, there's still an opportunity for Cincinnati to play their way in to the NCAA Tournament discussions. Winning Tuesday night at home against Utah is a must to keep the hope of those discussions alive.