In a tale of two halves, Cincinnati improved to 7-1 with an 84-67 win over MEAC preseason favorite, Howard.
The Bearcats struggled with consistency throughout the first half, turning the ball over eight times and allowing Howard to get easy looks at the rim. The Bison led 32-30 at 1:07 in the first half, following two Blake Harper free throws.
Harper would finish with 23 points, 10 rebounds to lead all scorers.
"I thought they were well prepared," Miller told media following the game. Their movement without the ball can be difficult to deal with. There's no doubt about that. That gave us some problems there in the first half."
Trailing 32-30 following Harper's free throws, Simas Lukosius closed the half with consecutive 3-pointers, including one at the buzzer, to give the Bearcats a 36-32 halftime lead.
(Photos: Taylor Keeton: RiverfrontU )
Lukosius contributed a team-high 18 points for the game on 3-of-6 shooting from deep to lead the Bearcats.
The quick 6-0 burst would be just enough to give the Bearcats momentum and energize a team that lacked intensity during points of the first half.
Dillon Mitchell opened the second half with multiple highlight reel dunks, scoring 10 points during the first four minutes as Cincinnati built a 44-32 lead with 18:11 remaining in the game, prompting Howard to call a timeout.
Mitchell would finish with 14 points, converting 5-of-6 of his field goal attempts, while also knocking down a three in his third consecutive game.
Prior to Cincinnati, Mitchell had never made a three in a game.
" I think it's just the work I put in, just trusting in my shot. Trust in the work I out in," Mitchell told media following the game. "Coach Wes (Miller) gives me a lot of freedom with the type of stuff to just evolve my game on the offensive side so I think it's just confidence, not overthinking it, just letting it fly."
With 9:44 remaining in the game, UC big man Aziz Bandaogo converted an and-one to cap off a 16-2 run and give the Bearcats their biggest lead of the game, 71-45.
Bandaogo was efficient from the field and played arguably his best game of his Bearcat career, finishing with 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field, while also pulling down six rebounds.
"It was really nice to see Aziz play the right way," said Miller. "I thought he kind of found himself offensively doing his job, you know, versus some different ball screen coverages that he's seen. He's getting switched tonight and that's something he's not used to. I thought he kind of found his rhythm of how to play against that."
Cincinnati made 15 of their first 21 field goal attempts in the second half to give the Cats enough of a cushion to cruise to a seventh victory.
UC finished the game shooting 53% (34-of-64) from the field, 35% (8-of-23) from three, and 62% (8-of-13) from the free throw line. Howard made all nine of their free throw attempts.
UC was able to get good looks around the rim all game, outscoring Howard 52-30 in the paint and scoring 24 points off 16 Howard turnovers.
"In the second half, we made a choice that we were going to try to defend to a standard close to what we expect and I thought good things happened at that point," said Miller.
The Bearcats owned the glass, out-rebounding a smaller Howard team 37-23, keyed by a season-high seven rebounds from Conner Hickman.
Hickman finished with just two points and has seemingly struggled to find consistency offensively over the past few games, but Wes Miller isn't worried about his starting 2-guard.
" He scored his 1,000th career point tonight. He'll be fine on offense," said Miller. "He scored 1,000 points as a division one basketball player. I respect every basketball league but he played in the Missouri Valley. That's a pretty damn good league. That's one of the best leagues that's not a power-five league. He's a damn good offensive player. He'll be fine."
Skillings makes his return
The biggest storyline of the game was the return of last season's leading scorer and rebounder, Dan Skillings.
The 6'6" wing entered the game at the 16:44 mark of the first half for his first appearance since an opening night 17-point, 11-rebound performance against Arkansas - Pine Bluff.
"It's good to see Dan back out there," said Miller. "I think it was a lift for our team. It's certainly a lift for me. We're a different team with him. We can do so many different things in terms of putting pressure on the rim off the bounce, getting to the board with his length and athleticism."
Skillings would finish with two points, three rebounds, and three assists in 14 minutes.
Following the game, Miller mentioned that Skillings could have played more but this game was more about just getting him some minutes to get him back in the swing of things.
Final Thoughts:
All attention and focus now turns to the Crosstown Shootout on Saturday night against Xavier. Cincinnati will try to end a five-game losing streak to their crosstown shootout. Regardless of opponent, Miller says he has been extremely hard on his team during practice since the Georgia Tech win.
"There's just a level of effort and there's a level of intensity and edge. When we play to that, we're very good."
Miller continued.
"There's a light switch and you can turn that intensity, that edge, that focus, you can turn that on. I just think you never turn it off. I think you turn it on and you just leave it on because when we have it on, we're a good basketball team. When we don/t we're not as good."
The Bearcats will have to start with more intensity, more consistently, if they want to be as great as they can be.
