Recap: Cincinnati 80 Ohio State 62

Cincinnati returned to the hardwood Friday night for a charity exhibition against the Ohio State Buckeyes. 

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(Photos: Taylor Keeton- RiverfrontU)

Sponsored by CareSource, the two were brought together to benefit mental health providers and charities within each school's footprint, along with Jay's Light, an organization begun by Dayton head coach Anthony Grant and his wife, Chris, to help mothers, fathers, teens and young adults find the resources to help with mental health struggles. Their daughter, Jay, died in 2022 at 20 as a result of mental illness.

Returning six of their top eight from last season, there is a lot of optimism and excitement surrounding UC hoops after being picked No. 20 in the preseason AP Poll.

Wes Miller's program enters the season ranked for the first time since 2017-18. Its last time ranked overall came in 2018-19, which was also the last year it made the NCAA Tournament.

Despite the overall goal of Friday night being about raising awareness on mental health, both programs competed as if it were a regular season game. 

One of the biggest off-season additions for Wes Miller was 6-foot-9 forward Dillon Mitchell.

The Texas transfer got the start and produced 12 points, 7 rebounds on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting from the field to lead the Bearcats in both statistical categories. Mitchell's first two points as a Bearcat came on a one handed oop dunk off a lob from Dan Skillings.

Mitchell was rewarded on the play after making a block at the other end and sprinting ahead in transition. The dunk gave the Bearcats an 18-6 lead with 13:07 remaining in the first half and capped off a 12-2 run over 3:09.

"I think the main thing with this group is we have fun together." Mitchell told media following the game. " That's kind of what it's all about. When we go out there, it's not we're trying to execute this, execute that, but we're going to have fun at the end of the day. I think that's something that this team really connects on. It's a big reason why I came here."

Simas Lukosius carried the Bearcats during stretches at the end of last season and continued his stellar play in the exhibition against Ohio State.

Lukosius scored 10 first half points to carry UC to a 41-31 halftime lead and finished with 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field.

Lukosius finished 2-of-5 from deep, with his second three giving UC a 39-23 lead at the 2:19 mark of the first half. 

Day Day Thomas didn't get the start but led UC with eight second half points, on his way to an 11-point night on 5-of-8 shooting.

Thomas finished with six assists with the highlight being a steal on an inbound play.

With Ohio State trying to inbound at midcourt, Thomas made a nice play on the ball and while falling out of bounds, found Rayvon Griffith wide open in transition for a dunk that would give Cincinnati a 63-36 lead with 8:28 remaining in the second half. 

Cincinnati finished the game with 20 turnovers but were able to turn 17 Ohio State turnovers into 24 points as the Bearcats walked off the floor with an 80-62 win. 

While Wes Miller was pleased with the outcome, he knows his team still has a long ways to go as preparation continues for the season opener on November 4th.

"There are some aspects of tonight that were good. I don't want to be a debbie downer. I believe if anything, our guys should get some confidence. They can be a good team tonight and we have the pieces and depth to be a good team. We aren't going to be a very good team if we think we've arrived in October because the score was in our favor. We have a long way to go but I do think that the depth was good, and I was pleased that we played a ton of guys tonight. We were subbing so much over there that my head was spinning. We played a ton of guys, and I thought everybody that played showed why they're in our program. CJ [Anthony] is a really good little player and he's gotten really good. He can shoot the heck out of the ball. I wish he'd have made one of those shots tonight."

Miller continued.

"Everybody that checked in the game made an impact tonight, and I'm proud of that. It was great to see Rayvon [Griffith] get out there. It's been a long time coming, and that was great. It was awesome to see his first shot go in."

Key Stats and Notes:

- The Bearcats carved up the Ohio State press and zone at times during the game for easy baskets at the rim. Cincinnati outscored the Buckeyes 36-16 in the paint and out-rebounded Jake Diebler's squad 38-21. Cincinnati shot 54 percent from the field (32-of-59) and also made 10-of-26 three point attempts in the blowout win. 

- Jizzle James and Day Day Thomas combined for 10 assists but also had 7 turnovers between the two. While James finished with six points and  didn't have the type of offensive outburst that we saw during Cincinnati's post season run , his defense was noticeably better compared to this time last season.

- Tyler Betsey made his Cincinnati debut and came off the bench to score seven points on 2-of-7 shooting, while also connecting on one of his five 3-point attempts in 16 minutes. 

- After sitting out last season as a redshirt, Cincinnati product Rayvon Griffith finally made his much anticipated UC debut. Griffith subbed in at the 13:04 mark of the first half and calmly drained his first 3-point attempt of his Bearcat career less than a minute later to extend UC's lead to 21-8. Griffith would finish with five points, two rebounds in ten minutes of action. 

- Dan Skillings scored seven of his nine points in the first half and converted 4-of-8 field goal attempts. Skillings scored seven of UC's first 14 points in the opening five minutes of the first half. 

- Arrinten Page (6 points, 5 rebounds) and Aziz Bandaogo (4 points, 5 rebounds) were both active defensively and made things tough for Ohio State around the rim at both ends of the floor. 

Overall:

Cincinnati looked the part of a preseason top 20 team. They showed great depth, pace, played aggressive defensively, and really shared the ball well offensively. This team has the ability to be a fun bunch that wins a lot of games, if they continue to put in the work and progress week to week.

Postgame Videos:

RiverfrontU will have more preseason coverage Tuesday October 21st and Wednesday October 22nd as we head to Kansas City for both Men's and Women's Big 12 Media Days.