Recap: Cincinnati 83 Morehead State 56

by Ryan Roberts

Playing without senior point guard Day Day Thomas, as well as last season's leading scorer and rebounder, Dan Skillings, five different Bearcats scored in double figures as Cincinnati improved to 2-0 Friday night with an 83-56 win over Morehead State.

(Photo; Taylor Keeton / RiverfrontU )

Aziz Bandaogo scored six of his 12 points during the first four minutes of the game as the Bearcats raced out to an early 10-3 lead.

Bandaogo would also pull down five rebounds, while making 5-of-6 field goal attempts in 22 minutes of action. 

Morehead State big man Deionte Miles scored on consecutive possessions out of the first media timeout to cut the UC lead to 10-7 but the Eagles would be outscored 27-12 the rest of the half as Cincinnati made 16-of-27 field goal attempts (59%), while limiting Morehead to 8-of-26 from the field (30.8%).

Cincinnati led 37-19 after the first 20 minutes of action.

After scoring a team-high 20 points in Monday night's win over Arkansas Pine-Bluff, Simas Lukosius' name was once again at the top of the box score contributing 14 points, six assists on 6-of-7 shooting from the field. 

(Photo: Taylor Keeton / RiverfrontU )

Lukosius' layup at the 16:35 mark of the second half extended the Bearcat lead to 45-21.

Jizzle James was limited to just two points during the first half, but scored 12 second half points while making all five of his field goal attempts and both three-point attempts, to finish the game with 14 points in 25 minutes.

James scored nine consecutive points for Cincinnati over two minutes, 50 seconds to give the Bearcats a 72-42 lead with 6:18 left in the second half. 

Wes Miller has repeatedly mentioned how special USC transfer Arrinten Page is and he was once again vocal about Page following Friday night's victory.

"He's such a terrific young player, and he's just scratching the surface," Miller told reporters following the game. 

"He seems to get better every week so I'm having a blast coaching him."

The sophomore big man made 7-of-8 free throw attempts and scored 13 points, while pulling down five rebounds in 17 minutes.

"He's so fascinating. The talent is incredible. The athleticism is incredible. He can move, he's incredibly intelligent, he's skilled. He's just young. He's a guy that I'm really, really excited about."

Page's two free throws with 3:45 remaining in the game gave Cincinnati an 81-47 lead- their biggest lead of the game.

Morehead State outscored UC 9-2 over the final 3:45 as the Bearcats were held without a field goal over the final 4:02. 

The Bearcats will now get a week off before returning to the court Friday 11/15 for a 7:00 pm tip off against Nicholls.

Key stats and notes:

- 6-foot-9 forward Dillon Mitchell was impressive once again, finishing the game with 14 points, 9 rebounds while making all seven of his field goal attempts. The Bearcats were plus-37 with Mitchell on the court.

"Dillon was terrific tonight. He was really good," said Miller. "I'm not a big plus minus guy, because that stuff can be misleading, especially in limited data like a one game situation, but it's not misleading tonight. I thought he was a difference maker on both ends when he was in the game tonight. I was pleased with that; I thought he looked really good defensively. He was great on the glass, with nine rebounds. He's been showing us flashes of some things that he could do offensively, and I thought he was able to apply that to the game tonight and I was excited about that."

- UC finished the game making 60% of their field goal attempts. The Bearcats were 13-of-16 on layups and made all eight dunk attempts. There was an emphasis on being more aggressive around the rim, and it showed as Wes Miller's team tallied 48 points in the paint, while holding MSU to 26 points in the paint. 

"It's been an emphasis for us to be more aggressive all offseason and all preseason, to try to put pressure on the rim," said Miller. " Whether it's with the drive, the pick and roll with the post opportunities, (how we use our big wings in post opportunities), we've tried to put more pressure on the basket and get to the foul line more."
- If there was one "negative" tonight, it was the inability of Cincinnati to dominate the glass like they have done so well under Wes Miller. Morehead finished tied in rebounds with 30, while also pulling down 11 offensive rebounds. 
"I'm not pleased with our rebounding. That's something we got to hang our hat on," said Miller. " So, I'm not pleased with that at all. To not have one offensive rebound after 32 minutes of play, you guys know me well now, that frustrates me. I didn't think that we rebounded to our standard tonight."
- On a positive note, Cincinnati improved at the free throw line in game two, making 11-of-15 attempts, after making just 13-of-23 attempts in game one. 
Day Day Thomas / Dan Skillings Update:
Following the game, Miller mentioned that Skillings suffered a minor knee injury in Monday's win over Pine-Bluff.
"He came in Tuesday for film, and after the game he was fine, but (Tuesday) his knee swelled up so we're trying to figure that out, but we don't have a big update."
Skillings did not practice Thursday but was up walking around and on the bench for the game.
"We're certainly not the same team without him and Day Day. It'll be great to get those guys back."
Thomas was able to get in a full work out following the shoot around earlier in the day and told Miller that he was good to play tonight.
" We want to make sure that we don't have setbacks so we've been taking it way more cautiously than we probably need to but I think that's the right thing to do....
my guess is that Day Day will be participating in a different way in our practices next week and if that keeps progressing, it wouldn't surprise me if he's playing in our next game."
Full post-game video with Miller, Mitchell, Bandaogo 

 

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