The Bearcats improved to 2-0 on Friday night following their 83-56 victory over Morehead State which was Head Coach Wes Miller's 250th career win as head coach.
The Bearcats were led by Dillon Mitchell who finished with a game high 14 points and nine rebounds on a perfect (7-7) shooting. The Texas transfer was the difference maker in this one and stepped up in a huge way for the Bearcats with the absence of Dan Skillings.
"Guys, Dillon Mitchell was terrific tonight." Head Coach Wes Miller told reporters. "You look down and see +37, and everyone knows I am not a big +/- guy because that stuff can be misleading. However, it wasn't misleading tonight. I thought he was the difference maker on both ends of the court. I thought he looked great defensively and on the glass with nine rebounds."
The Bearcats also saw big nights from Simas Lukosius (14 points, 6 assists on 6-7 FG), Aziz Bandaogo (12 points, 5 rebounds on 5-6 FG), Jizzle James (14 points, 12 of which came in the second half, on 6-10 shooting).
The Bearcats also saw a career night from Southern California transfer Arrinten Page, who finished with a career high 13 points on (3-4 FG, 7-8 FT), while grabbing five rebounds along the way.
Cincinnati's size and physicality was too much to handle for the Eagles tonight as the Bearcats outscored Morehead state 48-26 on points in the paint. I was very impressed with the offensive games between the likes of Mitchell, Page and Bandaogo, and Cincinnati is going to need performances like that pending the severity of Skillings knee injury.
How it happened
The Eagles jumped out to an early 3-2 lead over the Bearcats before Cincinnati rattled off seven unanswered to force a Morehead State timeout leading 10-3 with 15:59 remaining in the first half behind six quick points from Aziz Bandaogo. The Eagles would eventually cut the lead to three behind four quick points from Dionte Miles, but that would be the closets they'd get the rest of the night.
Cincinnati took a 37-19 lead into the halftime, despite getting out rebounded 15-13 in the opening twenty minutes of this one. However, the Eagles were hanging around due to winning the rebounding margin in this one. Now, that was something the Eagles have done well in their opening two games vs Louisville and Boyce.
Sophomore guard Jizzle James came alive in the second half and turned things up a notch after shooting just 1-5 from the field for two points in the first half. James was getting quality looks in the first half, however, shots just weren't falling.
Then early in the second half James saw the first one fall things would start to change in favor of the Bearcats. James finished the second half with 12 points on a perfect 5-5 shooting and that was a great sight to see especially after a slow start.
Now, despite Cincinnati, having the clear size advantage in the frontcourt, they weren't able to record an offensive rebound for the first 32 minutes of action tonight and that was worrisome to some. Now, that is also without one of Cincinnati's best rebounders in Skillings, but one guy shouldn't see the numbers skewed and impact a game that much. H
For Cincinnati's Dillon Mitchell, he knew the Bearcats have to be better on the offensive glass. Especially with that being one of Wes Miller's strength of this team. Cincinnati finished the game with five offensive rebounds, the lowest since 2022 in their loss to East Carolina back in Greensboro, North Carolina. "We got to be better. We didn't get enough offensive rebounds tonight." Mitchell told reporters.
"One offensive rebound after 32 minutes of play you guys know me well enough by now, to know that frustrates me." said Wes Miller. "Dan isn't playing but one guy shouldn't affect our ability to get to the boards. I didn't think we rebounded to our standards tonight."
Meanwhile, the Bearcats were too much to handle for the Eagles tonight en route to an 83-56 victory.
Up Next
The #20 Bearcats (2-0) will be back in action Next Friday, November 15th when they welcome in Nicholls to Fifth Third Arena.
