Recap: Cincinnati 77 Alabama State 59
After a statement win over Georgia Tech this past Saturday, 81-58, No. 16 ranked Cincinnati entered Wednesday night's game against Alabama State undefeated and leading the country in field goal percentage (55%).
(Photos: Ryan Luster / RiverfrontU )
Earlier this week, Wes Miller cautioned fans and anyone else who would listen not to look past their next opponent because of the name on their chest.
"They just won two of their last three division one games on the road or in a neutral environment," Miller told media Tuesday afternoon. "They're a good basketball team. They have really good players. They're really well organized and coached, and we better be ready to play basketball."
Early on, it looked like Miller's team came out with purpose and motivation.
The Bearcats jumped out to an early 10-2 lead fueled by consecutive three-pointers by Simas Lukosius and Jizzle James.
Fast forward to 10:18 of the first half and Cincinnati was clinging to a 23-19 lead.
The Bearcats had made just 4-of-13 three-point attempts prior to Day Day Thomas ending an almost three-minute scoring drought to extend the UC lead to 26-19 with 9:12 left in the opening half.
Cincinnati would finish 10-of-31 from three for the game, despite having multiple open looks from deep.
"They backed up, they went under everything," said Miller following the game. "It was kind of a funky thing because they bait you in to taking a quicker shot. I thought the way they tried to defend us made us settle and it turned in to some less than stellar shot selection."
Over the next four minutes, Dillon Mitchell would take over the game, scoring 10 of the next 13 Bearcat points to extend the UC lead to 39-25 at the 3:47 mark of the first half.
Cincinnati's lead grew to 43-25 with just over two minutes remaining in the half.
Despite out-rebounding ASU 28-18 in the first half, seven turnovers prevented the Bearcats from pulling away as they led 46-33 after the first 20 minutes of action.
Alabama State missed their first 14 shots of the second half as Cincinnati extended their lead to 58-36 following a Day Day Thomas three with 12:48 remaining in the game.
Five straight points from Simas Lukosius ended an almost three-minute scoring drought as the Cats led 65-44 at the 7:38 mark.
Lukosius three with 4:21 left gave the Bearcats their largest lead of the game , 74-47.
Lukosius would finish the game with a team high 16 points, making 4-of-10 three-point attempts.
Cincinnati would not score over the final 3:31 as Alabama State's Jalen Keago got going from deep, scoring nine of the game's final ten points.
"Alabama State's got a nice team. They've done a really nice job with their team. They will be very, very competitive in their league and they'll have a chance to play in the tournament," Wes Miller told media following the game.
When the final horn sounded, Cincinnati walked off the floor with a 77-59 win to improve to 6-0 with a road trip to Villanova up next on Tuesday night.
" We've got a big game on Tuesday against a really, really good, talented team on the road that is hungry. We better get our butts in gear," a disappointed Miller told media following the game."
Final Stats:
Final Thoughts:
Alabama State made 30% of their field goal attempts and 23% of their three-point attempts. While those numbers look good on paper, Miller was less than pleased with his team's effort and performance.
"I have nothing positive to say about the game, about our team. I am very, very disappointed in how we played. I feel bad for people that watched that. There's a standard that this team meets pretty damn consistently from a practice standpoint, in terms of approach, they've met that standard for the most part in all of the games we've played to date. They did not meet that standard tonight and that makes me very angry. Disappointed. What does anger matter."
Cincinnati struggled getting through ball screens, allowing Amarr Knox to finish with 24 points on 9-of-20 shooting.
Execution, transition defense, pace, loose balls, and attention to detail were all aspects of the game that disappointed Miller when evaluating his team.
Still, there are positives to Cincinnati struggling prior to another tough road trip next Tuesday.
"Every experience is positive if it's handled the right way. If you learn from it and grow from it."
Postgame Video: Miller, Bandaogo, James