Recap: Cincinnati 93 UCF 83

Wednesday night's game against UCF presented an opportunity for the Bearcats to hit the reset button on their season following four consecutive losses.

Following Sunday's 63-50 loss to West Virginia, Wes Miller decided to take a different approach for practice the following day.

Instead of lighting his team up for their lack of effort and intensity, Cincinnati spent Monday playing dodgeball with the thought behind it being that it would loosen his team up and get them back to just having fun together while also competing.

"I think they did a good job resetting this week. I think sometimes people can perceive what they watch in a game in different ways," Miller said. "The thing I've noticed is we've been carrying too much on our shoulders, whether it's pressure individually, as a team or wanting it too bad."

While an unconventional method, it proved to be just what Miller and his team needed.

Cincinnati built a 40-36 halftime lead behind 18 first half points from Day Day Thomas, and placed three others in double figures as Cincinnati ended their four-game skid with a 93-83 Quad 1 road win over the UCF Knights.

"I thought Day Day set a tone for us tonight making confident plays and having belief in himself," Miller said following the game. "He looked like the guy we've seen for a long time, whether it was AAU in COVID on a computer screen when I first saw him, or at Kilgore Junior College. He looked like himself tonight, and that loosened everyone else up. It was a needed win, and it was good seeing our guys play with confidence."

Thomas finished with a team-high 20 points in the win.

(Photo: Cincinnati Athletics / gobearcatsmbb twitter)

UC finished the game with 56 points in the paint, converting on 58% (38-of-65) of their field goal attempts. Cincinnati made their final four field goal attempts of the game to help close the Knights out for the road win.

Dillon Mitchell (19 points), Aziz Bandaogo (16 points), and Jizzle James (15 points) were the other three Bearcats to finish in double digit scoring. James scored 11 of his 15 points during the second half.

Tyler Betsey had his most important game of his Bearcat career, scoring eight second half points off the bench. Dan Skillings contributed 8 points off the bench, to help key a balanced attack by Wes Miller's team.

While UCF won the rebounding battle, 39-27, UC made up for it by scoring 18 points off 16 UCF turnovers.

After turning the ball over 8 times during the first half, UC had just two turnovers during the second half.

Prior to the game, Wes Miller saw former Bearcat and hall of fame head coach Bob Huggins in attendance wearing a UC shirt and asked him to speak to the team.

"How about Bob Huggins coming in our locker room before the game with a Cincinnati shirt on. How about that kind of support? I can't tell you how much that meant to me. This Cincinnati basketball thing is pretty cool," Miller told Dan Hoard and Terry Nelson on the postgame radio show.

Miller continued in his post game press conference with media.

"That's the kind of stuff that touches me and I don't take that lightly. Whether it's Mick Cronin or Bob Huggins and the long list of former players, the guys have been supported, not just when things are going good, they've been supportive when things are going bad. I don't know that you can have a higher drive than me but whatever the highest drive is, you get that, you feel a little bit extra becaue you feel some responsibility. That kind of stuff, it means a lot. I honestly can't put into words how much that means that somebody in his position is willing to come be supportive for all the right reasons."

UCF had made 10 or more three-pointers in nine games so far this season, including seven times in the last 11 games, but were limited to just 5-of-22 from 3-point range. It proved to be a big factor in the game as UC finished 5-of-16 from three and 12-of-19 from the free throw line. 

Keyshawn Hall led UCF with 23 points and Darius Johnson added 21 points. Moustapha Thiam had 14 points and eight rebounds and Jordan Ivy-Curry scored 11.

With the win, UC improves to 13-9 (3-8 Big 12) while UCF drops to 13-9 (4-7 Big 12).

Cincinnati will now get two days to prepare for a two-game homestand that begins with Utah on Saturday night. 

Game Notes:

First half:

16:34- UCF makes four of their first eight field goal attempts, racing out to an early 9-4 lead following a dunk by freshman Moustapha Thiam.

13:06 - Dillon Mitchell cuts the UCF lead to 14-12 after Jizzle James scored on the previous possession. Defensively, UC had held UCF without a field goal for 2:37. 

11:45- Jizzle James' second foul sends us to the under-12 media timeout with UC trailing 15-14.

10:12- Day Day Thomas scores off a bounce pass from Dillon Mitchell to give the Bearcats an 18-15 lead. The basket extended the UC run to 10-1 since falling behind 14-8. Darius Johnson picked up a flagrant foul on the following UCF possession with an elbow to the chin of Thomas. Thomas splits the free throws to extend the UC lead to 19-15. UCF hadn't converted a field goal in 2:38, missing six consecutive shots.

7:04- Bearcats lead 23-20 after a 1-for-10 stretch from the field by UCF.... UC is dominating the paint, 18-4, but six turnovers is keeping the game close. 

4:39- Day Day Thomas knocks down a three following a layup on the prior UC possessions to give UC a 30-24 lead, forcing UCF to call a timeout. 

2:06- Keyshawn Hall scores on a nice drive and finish over Bandaogo to cap off an 8-2 UCF run to tie the score at 32. UCF made 5 of their last 7 shots of the half but trailed 40-36 after Day Day Thomas scored the final two baskets of the half, including a tip in off his own miss with .01 left on the clock.

Second half:

15:51- UC leads 50-44 after an offensive putback by Keyshawn Hall. Bearcats led by eight at 16:29 after Dillon Mitchell's hook shot over Thiam. UC had four turnovers through the first 4:09 of the second half, allowing UCF to hang around. 

11:58- Tyler Betsey's second three of the half gives UC a 58-53 advantage with two free throws coming out of the media timeout following the third foul on Thiam. UC used a 9-3 run to cut the UC lead to 53-51 at 13:27, but a Thomas to Mitchell lob and dunk over the UCF zone swung momentum back in favor of the Bearcats. Jizzle James made two free throws out of the media timeout to extend the lead to 60-53.

10:08- Dillon Mitchell putback off a missed Betsey 3-pointer extends the UC lead to 66-57.

9:06- Jizzle James picks up his fourth foul after extending the UC lead to 68-59. To make matters worse, Dillon Mitchell hurts his knee after going up for a breakaway dunk and having his knee buckle while attempting the dunk. 

6:52- Tyler Betsey extends the UC lead to 72-64, giving him 8 second half points, forcing a UCF timeout.

6:26- Dan Skillings answers a Darius Johnson basket with a corner three off an assist from Bandaogo to extend the UC lead to 75-66.

4:28- Aziz Bandaogo grabs an offensive rebound following a miss by Thomas and lays it in to extend UC's lead to 81-73. That lead would hold up until the under-4 media timeout at 3:51.

(Photo: Cincinnati Athletics / gobearcatsmbb twitter)

2:07- Jizzle James answers a Keyshawn Hall putback with a jumper to push the UC lead back to eight points. James scores on the next UC possession to extend the lead to 10 with 1:42 on the clock.

0:35- UC caps off a streak of five consecutive makes on an Aziz Bandaogo dunk to extend their lead to 93-80. Darius Johnson's three with :22 seconds remaining would be the final basket of the game.

Final Score: Cincinnati 93 UCF 83 

Final Thoughts:

This was exactly the type of game Cincinnati needed to try to get back on track after a month of disappointing results. The Bearcats played with intensity, got out and ran, and consistently made "winning plays" finishing with 18 assists on 38 made baskets. 

There was a clear emphasis on attacking the rim and getting downhill and it proved to be a winning recipe. 

While one win doesn't make up for a month of underwhelming results, there is enough talent to turn things around and potentially sneak back in to the NCAA Tournament conversation if this team can maintain this level of consistency over the final nine games.

Wins over Utah and BYU in the next two would go a long way in restoring confidence in the fanbase that this team isn't as bad as January probably suggested. 

Video: Wes Miller, Day Day Thomas Post UCF

Video: Johnny Dawkins, Keyshawn Hall Post Cincinnati