Recap: BYU 80 Cincinnati 52

Playing a two-game road trip over five days, Cincinnati was welcomed to Utah Saturday night with an 80-52 thrashing by the BYU Cougars in their first game of the trip.

 

The 28-point margin of defeat was the largest for the Bearcats since losing to Ohio State, 81-53, in 2022 in the Maui Invitational.

 

One game after giving up 13 3-pointers in the loss to Texas Tech, Kevin Young's team made 15-of-24 from deep against the Bearcats, including an 11-of-15 second half clinic from three.

 

"Their shooting performance during the second half was difficult for us to deal with," Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller told media following the game. "We made some errors and spotted them some easy baskets but they also made some difficult shots and some shots over the top so give them credit. I don't know if I've ever coached a game where someone went 11-for-15 from three on a team that I've been apart of in a half."

 

(Photo: BYU Athletics)

 

BYU guard Richie Saunders led the Cougars with 21 points, scoring 16 during the second half. Saunders finished the game 5-of-7 from three, making 4-of-5 during the second half. 

 

Freshman Egor Denim scored 15 points, knocking down 3-of-5 3-point attempts and 6-of-7 free throws. Denim's eight straight points over 1:04 to end the first half and begin the second half turned a 23-23 tie into a 31-23 BYU advantage.

 

"It's a tough swing. Denim's shooting 28% from three coming in to tonight," Miller said. "A projected lottery pick for a reason. He's incredibly dynamic and at 6'9" can do a lot with the basketball but he hasn't shot it that prolifically yet and he did it against us tonight and that made it very difficult to defend them."

 

The freshman also dished out seven assists and pulled down five rebounds.

 

Dawson Baker was the third Cougar to reach double-figures for BYU, scoring 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting in 15 minutes. 

 

(Photo: BYU Athletics )

As a team, BYU made 57% of their field goal attempts and 9-of-11 free throw attempts. BYU shot 74% from the field during the second half, making 17-of-23 field goals.

 

BYU's hot shooting and margin of victory were aided by the Bearcats making just 5-of-28 attempts from three, as well as 23-of-61 field goal attempts. 

 

"We just wanna try to get good shots," Miller explained when asked about the amount of three-point attempts. "I thought we had good pop in the first half. I didn't like that we didn't get to the free throw line. I thought we were a little jumpy around the basket instead of being strong and using ball fakes and shot fakes to get them in the air. I liked our energy and fight in the first half but we weren't good enough in the second half and that's the truth."

 

The shooting woes were spread across the roster, as Simas Lukosius was the only Bearcats to reach double figures, scoring 14 points, highlighted by a 4-of-8 effort from deep. 

 

Arrinten Page scored 7 points, while Jizzle James and Dan Skillings' both scored six points, combining to go 0-for-8 from three. 

 

Both Dillon Mitchell and Aziz Bandaogo were limited to four points, while combining for nine rebounds. 

 

The majority of the Bearcats' offense was a result of scoring 19 points off 14 BYU turnovers. UC outscored BYU 10-3 in fast break points and turned 13 offensive rebounds into 11 second chance points. 

 

BYU won the rebounding battle, 34-27. Dillon Mitchell's five rebounds led the Bearcats.

 

With the loss, Cincinnati falls to 2-6 in Big 12 play and 12-7 overall. 

 

BYU improves to 13-6 overall (4-4 Big 12) and are now 10-1 at home this season with an averaging margin of victory of 26 points. 

 

With a short turn around at Utah on Tuesday night, Miller described how the Bearcats have to approach the next few days to prepare for the second game of their road trip.

 

"You gotta prepare to try to win a game on Tuesday night. We can't change what happened tonight. Can't change it. It's college basketball," Miller said. " People get their asses kicked. It's part of the whole thing. It happens. It's happening more to us than I'd like it to happen, but it's happening. You gotta respond. We'll respond. We got a group of kids that aren't going to give in. We gotta play better while we respond and we all know that."

 

 

Game Recap:

 

It was another offensive struggle for the Bearcats to begin the game. 

 

A basket by Aziz Bandaogo and three by Simas Lukosius gave the Bearcats a 5-3 lead at 18:06.

 

(Photo: Cincinnati Athletics - gobearcatsmbb twitter )

 

 

UC would not score over the next 2:42, missing 7 of their next 8 field goal attempts. Day Day Thomas ended a streak of four consecutive misses with a three at 15:18 to give UC an 8-7 lead.

 

Leading 10-9 at 13:13 following another basket by Thomas, BYU put together a 7-2 run to give the Cougars an 16-12 advantage at 10:41.

 

Tyler Betsey's turnover at 8:03 led to a three by Kanon Catchings at the other end to extend the BYU lead to 21-14 at 7:39. 

 

Trailing 21-14, UC outscored BYU 9-2 over the next 6:35.

 

Dan Skillings' jumper at 3:24 sparked a 7-0 run over 2:23. An alley-oop dunk by Bandaogo was followed by a Lukosius three to tie the score at 23 with 1:04 remaining in the first half.

 

Freshman Egor Denim scored five points over the final :47 seconds to put the Cougars on top, 28-23, at the half. Denim's three with :05 seconds remaining in the half ended an over six-minute field goal drought by the home team. 

 

Cincinnati made just 3-of-15 three's during the first half and did not attempt a free throw, finishing 10-of-32 during the first half.

 

BYU quickly extended their lead to 34-26 at 19:11 following three's by Denim and Saunders on BYU's first two possessions of the second half. 

 

Saunders made his second three of the half at 18:03, forcing Wes Miller to call a timeout, as his team was now down 38-26, and struggling to get stops on the defensive end. 

 

The Cougars led 42-28 at 15:26 and were a perfect 5-of-5 from the field and 3-of-3 from deep. 

 

Trevin Knell's three at 15:11 extended the BYU to 45-28 and extended the Cougars run to 17-2 over 4:32.

 

Arrinten Page capped off a 7-2 UC run with an offensive rebound and dunk at 11:45 to cut the BYU lead to 47-35, but Richie Saunders answered with a three at the other end to give BYU a 50-35 lead at the under-12 media timeout.

 

Saunders buried another three out of the media timeout to extend the lead to 53-35 at 10:39. The three by Saunders marked his eighth straight point for the Cougars.

 

With 8:05 remaining in the game, BYU had made 12-of-15 from the field and 7-of-9 3-point attempts during the second half and led 60-42.

 

 

Three's by Kanon Catchings and Dawson Baker extended the BYU lead to 66-44 with 6:12 remaining in the game. 

 

(Photo: BYU Athletics)

 

Two missed free throws at 5:02 extended the UC scoring drought to three minutes and were an exclamation point on another uninspired offensive output. 

 

Jizzle James ended the scoring drought with a jumper at 4:20 to cut the BYU lead to 68-46.

 

BYU continued to pour it on, extending their lead to 77-50 with :42 seconds remaining in the game. 

 

Rarely used reserve, Elijah Crawford, chucked up a three with :01 second remaining to put an exclamation point on the Cougars beat down of the Bearcats. 

 

Final Score: BYU 80 Cincinnati 52

 

Final Thoughts:

 

For a team that is in desperate need of stacking wins together, it was yet another disappointing effort against a team that presented a Quad 1 opportunity on the Bearcats' resume. 

 

UC has now lost to Baylor by 20, Kansas by 13, Texas Tech by 10, and BYU by 25. For a program that showed they belonged last season, they have struggled to show the same consistent, competitive effort that had fans optimistic that this could be the year that the Bearcats return to the NCAA Tournament with the pieces that were returning. 

 

The reason for the offensive struggles are unknown and it is clear that Wes Miller is also struggling to find answers to why his team isn't performing at the level that their individual talent suggests they should be performing. Whether it is spacing, lineup combinations, substitution patterns, or just flat out not being a good offensive team, a solution needs to be figured out quickly because the Bearcats are running out of time with each loss.

 

 

Postgame video: Wes Miller & Simas Lukosius

 

 

Up Next:

 

At Utah 

Tuesday 1/28 10:00pm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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