Recap: Texas Tech 81 Cincinnati 71

Cincinnati finally put together the type of offensive consistency that Wes Miller predicted would come following a rough four- game stretch to open Big 12 play. 

 

The Bearcats scored 71 points, made 52% of their field goal attempts, including 60% during the first half, made 14-of-19 free throw attempts and turned the ball over just eight times. 

 

(Photos: Taylor Keeton / RiverfrontU )

 

Despite those positives offensively, Cincinnati could not overcome the hot shooting of Texas Tech Tuesday evening inside Fifth Third Arena.

 

The Red Raiders out-rebounded the Bearcats 34-27 and made 12-of-31 three-point attempts on their way to an 81-71 victory.

 

Tech entered Tuesday night 8th in Kenpom's offensive efficiency, 12th in effective field goal percentage, and 13th in 3-point percentage (38.9).

 

 

"Needless to say, I'm disappointed. It was a big opportunity here at home against a good team, and we didn't do our part," Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller said following the game.  "They're a very, very good offensive team. I believe we have the ability to be a great defensive team. We didn't defend tonight. Our offense is continuing to find its rhythm and improve. There were some good moments tonight."

 

Miller continued.

 

"The defense didn't hold fort tonight, generally defensively when you're geared up, your deflection numbers look right the offensive rebounding is consistent with defensive effort because it's just movement to the ball and effort to the ball loose balls. We didn't win those battles tonight and that was very frustrating."

 

 

JT Toppin led four double-figure scorers, scoring a game high 20 points to lead the Red Raiders. Toppin also pulled down seven rebounds.

 

Chance McMillan scored 17 points, including 12 in the second half to keep Cincinnati from ever getting any closer than three.

 

Texas Tech out-scored Cincinnati 32-20 off the bench, keyed by Kevin Overton and Christian Anderson.

 

Overton made 3-of-5 from deep, scoring 14 points, while Anderson made 5-of-7 from three on his way to an 18-point night.

 

"They got a lot of guys that shoot it at a high level. We're talking about it with our team before the game like, everybody they play on the perimeter's made at least four threes in a game already this year," Miller said.


"I think we were number one in the nation going into tonight, defending the three-point line and whatever the numbers that we look at as a staff, we're number one in the country defending the three-point line and they come in here and hang 12 on us. That's very frustrating for me."

 

Jizzle James led the Bearcats with 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting, also finishing with 3 rebounds, 3 assists.

 

 

Offensively, Cincinnati made a concerted effort to get downhill and get to the rim and it showed in the final stats as the Bearcats outscored Tech 40-26 in the paint.

 

"We're very well aware that through this stretch to start league play that we're not putting enough pressure on the rim. We're not getting fouled enough. We're not getting enough easy baskets," Miller said. "We've made a concerted effort to throw the ball inside more. We've made a concerted to work on driving the basketball. We made a concerted effort to try to be more fundamentally sound when we're around the paint and uh, you know, we got to continue to grow there."

 

Dillon Mitchell (12 points) and Simas Lukosius (10 points) both reached double figures, while Arrinten Page was just shy with 9 points in 10 minutes.

 

For Page, it was a nice bounce back effort after being held without a point in the Bearcats' win over Arizona State.

 

"Some positive stuff… AP is sitting right here. He's starting to grow as a young player," Miller said.  "We've been talking about some little things that he can do to be more effective. He was very effective in his minutes."

 

Luksoius struggled from the field, finishing 1-of-7 but did a good job drawing contact and getting to the line, making 7-of-8 free throws. 

 

 

With the loss, the Bearcats fall to 12-6 (2-5 Big 12) with Texas Tech improving to 14-4 (4-2 Big 12). The Red Raiders are now 4-0 in Big 12 play on the road. 

 

"Wes has a super physical team and going into this game, we knew it'd be a tough environment," Texas Tech head coach Grant McCasland said following the game. "We also knew that their ability to guard and turn people over was really a huge part of how we handled this environment and how we handled the ball pressure. We really tried to play inside out, but if we had an open look from three, we were going to be aggressive."

Game Recap:

 

Texas Tech won the tip and proceeded to score on their second possession of the game on a hook-shot from leading scorer, JT Toppin. 

 

 

UC answered with a 6-0 run over the next 1:09, keyed by four points from Jizzle James.

 

 

Kevin Overton cut the UC lead to 6-5 at 15:27 with a three to end a stretch of five consecutive misses over three-minutes by the Red Raiders.

 

 

The Bearcats answered the Tech three with an 8-2 run over the next 3:25 and led 14-7 at 12:02 of the first half.

 

 

Defensively, the Bearcats limited Tech to a 3-of-12 start from the field, 1-of-8 from three, while making five of their first 10 attempts from the field and all four free throw attempts.

 

 

Trailing 14-7, Tech made five of the next seven field goal attempts, including three's on three consecutive possessions to tie the score at 18 with 8:56 remaining in the opening half.

 

 

Christian Anderson made two three's during the Raiders' 11-4 run. 

 

 

Texas Tech stayed hot from deep, making six of their next seven attempts from deep after their 1-for-8 start. 

 

With 3:17 remaining in the first half, Tech had made six consecutive field goal attempts and led 35-31 following three's on consecutive possessions by Kevin Overton. 

 

 

Tech extended their lead to 42-35 with 1:23 remaining after gathering offensive rebounds on consecutive misses during the same possession. Following the second miss, Christian Anderson knocked down his third three of the first half.

 

 

Prior to those two misses, Tech had made seven consecutive field goal attempts. 

 

 

Jizzle James made a three on the next Bearcat possession but UC still trailed 42-38 at the half as Day Day Thomas' fadeaway jumper clanked off the back of the rim with :03 seconds remaining. 

 

 

Tech scored 35 points over the final 12:04 of the first half, making 12-of-17 from the field and 7-of-9 attempts from deep.

 

 

For comparison, UC made 15-of-25 (60%) of their field goal attempts and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line during the entirety of the first half, but connected on just 1-of-5 attempts from deep.

 

 

Tech opened the second half on an 8-3 run, answering Simas Lukosius' three with a 6-0 run over the next :44 seconds. 

 

 

JT Toppin and Chrisitian Anderson both made three's to extend the Tech lead to 50-41 at 17:21 of the second half. 

 

 

Jizzle James turn-around jumper cut the Tech lead to 50-43 at 15:54. 

 

 

Baskets by Arrinten Page and Day Day Thomas cut the Tech lead to 54-47 at 13:07 but the Red Raiders answered at the other end on a basket by JT Toppin to push the lead back to nine.

 

 

With 11:58 remaining in the game, Tech was winning the rebound battle 27-17 and had a 9-1 advantage in offensive rebounds. The Bearcats were being out-scored 10-0 in second chance points, contributing to their deficit. 

 

 

Baskets by Aziz Bandaogo on consecutive possessions cut the Tech lead to 59-52, but Darrion Williams converted a tough finish in traffic at the other end, which was followed by Christian Anderson making 2-of-3 free throws after a foul call on Jizzle James at the end of the shot clock.

 

 

Tech led 63-54 at 7:52 of the second half, seemingly answering every quick run by the Bearcats. 

 

 

After Chance McMillan extended the Tech lead to 68-60 with the Raiders' 12th three of the game, Tyler Betsey buried a three at the other end to cut the deficit to five at 6:16.

 

 

Cincinnati would be held scoreless over the next 2:34 and Tech would take advantage with a 7-0 run over 1:47 to push the lead back to double digits (75-63) with 3:47 remaining. 

 

 

Tech did not convert a field goal over the final 3:41 but made all six free throw attempts to prevent UC from getting any closer than seven points.

 

The Bearcats trailed 75-68 with 2:55 remaining but consecutive misses by Jizzle James on a three-point attempt and step-back jumper ended the Bearcat comeback attempt.

 

 

Key stat:

 

Dan Skillings has been really good since his return from injury, scoring in double figures in 8-of-10 games. The two games that he didn't reach double figures, he scored 9 points (v Kansas) and 7 points (v Grambling).

 

 

Skillings was limited to 5 points Tuesday night on 2-of-6 shooting. Skillings led the team in rebounds, pulling down five. 

 

While Skillings didn't play poorly, this team needs him to be more aggressive during key stretches of a game. After missing a three-point attempt at 11:18 of the second half, Skillings did not attempt another shot until he went to the line and split a pair of free throws with :31 seconds remaining. 

 

"He's a terrific player. He's a great player. He's one of the premier players at his position I think in this league," Miller said after when asked what he'd like to see out of Skillings when it comes to rebounding. "We're asking a lot but I think he's a great player that can handle it and we can't lose sight of some of the things that he does really, really well which is get to the board. Yeah, we need him to get to the board a lot more. That's one of his greatest gifts but that's part of the evolution of him going from a good player to a great player, is putting all these things he can do together and I got to do a better job helping him do that as a coach."

 

 

Final Thoughts:

 

The offense showed a lot of improvement tonight, consistently getting in transition and putting pressure on the defense by getting to the rim and the free throw line. The Bearcats finished 11-of-15 on layups and scored on 53% of their possessions, averaging 1.109 points per possession. 

 

As frustrated as most were following the game, Miller described perfectly how his team can build on this offensive performance moving forward.

 

"Frustration can't be the reason you don't recognize that the offense is improving and guys are starting to play with more confidence and we're playing with significantly better pace up the floor," 



Defensively, they were limited to just three offensive rebounds and were outscored 10-5 in second chance points. Tech finished with 10 offensive rebounds, which may not seem like much, but the time in which they occurred was the biggest takeaway. It seemed like Tech beat the Bearcats to every loose ball and got second chance opportunities when they needed them to prevent UC from gaining any momentum. 

 

 

Cincinnati is now 0-5 in quad one opportunities this season and will have to find a way to maintain this offensive consistency, while also getting back to the level of defense that is expected. UC will now travel across the country for a road trip to Utah, facing BYU Saturday and Utah on Tuesday. Drop either of those two games and the hole that the Bearcats are currently trying to dig themselves out of becomes even deeper as they try to get back on the right side of the bubble with 13 games remaining. 

 

 

Postgame Video: Wes Miller, Arrinten Page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published