It is officially basketball season as the 20th ranked Bearcats tipped off their highly anticipated season tonight with a victory over Arkansas Pine-Bluff.
The Bearcats did so without veteran point guard Day-Day Thomas, who is recovering from a minor setback in his surgically repaired foot.
Final Stats
Cincinnati was led by senior guard Simas Lukosius, who finished with a game high 20 points on an efficient (8-10 FG) performance.
Dan Skillings also chimed in with a 17-point, 11 rebound double-double performance. On the other hand, sophomore point guard Jizzle James flirted with a near triple-double finishing with 12 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds in his first game of the season.
Dillon Mitchell (10 points, eight rebounds) and Aziz Bandaogo (11 points, eight rebounds) anchored the Bearcats frontcourt as they helped the Bearcats outrebound the Tusks 48-25 on the night.
How it happened
The Bearcats jumped out to an early 10-9 lead with 15:31 to play in the first half after a quick five-to-zero run. The Bearcats offense started to click after a defensive stop turned into cash after Simas Lukosius found Conner Hickman for the corner three for his first points as a Bearcat.
Cincinnati would then go on a 14-3 run to extend their lead to double-digits behind seven straight points from Dan Skillings. That run would force an early Arkansas Pine-Bluff timeout with the Bearcats leading 23-16 with 12:04 to go in the first half. Despite Pine-Bluff starting the game 5/7 from the field, the offense went ice cold moments later.
Pine-Bluff would go just one for their last eight over a three-minute span, while the Bearcats on the other hand, went seven for their last nine following a made basket from Jizzle James. Cincinnati continued to score from all different angles as seven Bearcats scored in the first 14 minutes of this one.
Cincinnati was looking to utilize their size and strength early as they were dominating the paint in the open minutes. Cincinnati scored 26 of their first 38 points in the paint behind the Likes of Skillings, Page and Aziz Bandaogo. Arkansas Pine-Bluff simply had no answer for the talented Cincinnati frontcourt as Bearcats size was a clear problem for Pine-Bluff in this one.
The Bearcats took a 52-32 lead in the halftime after James buried a huge triple at the buzzer. However, the Bearcats were led by Simas Lukosius (10 points) and Dan Skillings (9 points, six rebounds and four assists). Cincinnati finished the first half slashing 59/63/14 shooting splits as everything was falling in the Bearcats favor after a 14-1 run to end the half.
First half takeaways
This team can really score the ball to say the least. Most impressive thing though, for me was the play of Skillings, Bandaogo and Page. I thought Page did a great job at providing a huge spark off the bench early and shown flashes that he could be that big post player who isn't scared to put the ball on the floor and take contact in the paint. That is something that Cincinnati has missed over the last few seasons.
Now, I thought James was doing a fantastic job at facilitating the offense as eight different Bearcats scored in the first half. Althought, I thought James was doing a great job at creating for others and facilitating, which is something he said was the biggest focus this offseason and it showed early in the first half with the four assists.
Cincinnati's size and length was the biggest takeaway in my opinion. You could really see Pine-Bluff really struggle to get in the paint between the likes of Mitchell, Skillings, Page and Bandaogo. Now, it would be interesting to see if the Pine-Bluff would try and create some offense through the outside and force Cincinnati to defend the perimeter.
Cincinnati would come out to start the second half and dominate the paint following a six-point run featuring three dunks including a nasty one-handed slam from Bandaogo. From there, the Bearcats would never look back as they kept their foot on the gas the entire way extending their lead to 72-39 with 13:20 remaining to play following a Lukosius behind the back pass to Mitchell in transition for an open slam.
The Bearcats were all gas no brakes in this one after an electric second half where they completely wore down the Tusks in an all-out track meet. The Bearcats were just too much to handle for the Tusks come Monday night and that was the only way to describe it after a 50 point beat down at Fifth Third Arena.
Up Next for the Bearcats
The Bearcats (1-0) will be back in action this Friday when they welcome in Morehead State to Fifth Third Arena.
