Cincinnati improved to (15-9, 5-8 Big 12) on Tuesday night following their 85-75 victory over Utah.

The Bearcats welcomed back two of their own, as Mason and Gabe Madsen returned to Fifth Third Arena for the first time since the two elected to transfer a couple years ago, after arriving in Cincinnati back in 2020.

Now for Gabe, he absolutely lit Fifth Third Arena up on Tuesday night, finishing with a game high 28 points, on 10-26 shooting, while going (8-22 from three). At one point in time, it felt like Madsen wasn't going to miss a shot, especially after starting the second half 5-6 from behind the arch.

"It felt weird returning to Cincinnati. I had never seen Fifth Third Arena with people inside of the arena before. It was defiantly cool to see." Madsen told reporters. "I have a lot of memories here in Cincinnati. It was the last place that gave me an opportunity before Utah. I was excited to come back and see everything. It was kind of like a fever dream. It was cool to see that tonight."

"It was cool to come back to Cincinnati and spend time with my family." Madsen said. "I was able to spend time with my mother for her birthday. This place has a lot of memories because this is where I started my career. It was cool to see everything again."

Wes Miller gave high praise to the former Bearcats following his career night at his former school.

"Gabe Madsen, shoot, I wish, I had the opportunity to coach him, because he loves shooting here in Fifth Third Arena." Wes Miller said. "He made some tough shots tonight. I kept telling our guys, we have to do a better job defensively and he will start to miss shots. I didn't know how much, I really believed that though with how well he was shooting tonight."

Now for Cincinnati, they were led by sophomore guard Jizzle James, who finished with 25 points, which ties his career high, on 10-15 shooting. James has continued to step up for Cincinnati over the recent weeks as he has quickly found his groove since Day-Day Thomas has entered the starting lineup.

"I thought Jizzle was terrific tonight." said Wes Miller. "He was terrific tonight and is starting to find the rhythm that we know he can play with."

Utah head coach Craig Smith also noted that when Utah arrived at Fifth Third Arena around 10am this morning for shoot around, James was all alone in the gym getting a workout in lathered in sweat.

Josh Reed, who is coming off his best game of his career in the Bearcats win over BYU, followed up with an even better game this evening. Reed finished with a career high 13 points and four rebounds, while shooting 66% from the field. However, his most important assignment of the night was finding a way to slow down Gabe Madsen and he did just that down the stretch, where he held Madsen to 0-7 in the final minutes of this one, when guarding him.

"I told you guys over the weekend that Saturday wasn't going to be the best game of Josh Reed's career." said Miller. "He has a lot of basketball ahead of us. He isn't doing anything that isn't surprising to us. I thought he gave us a huge lift tonight. The floater he made with about four minutes to go was a huge basket for our team."

Also worth noting, Aziz Bandaogo recorded his first double-double of the season, finishing with 10 points and 10 rebounds in the Bearcats win.

Cincinnati was outrebounded 41-23 back on January 28th in the Bearcats 69-66 loss to Utah. Meanwhile tonight, they outrebounded the Utes 41-29, with 14 of those on the offensive boards.

"We put 41-23 on the board when we started the scouting report." Miller told reporters. "I thought our guys jumped back a little bit after seeing that number. I thought we did a much better job in that aspect tonight."

The Rundown

Cincinnati jumped out to an early 9-7 lead behind seven early points from James, as the sophomore continues to find his groove over the recent weeks. James anchored the Bearcats offense early as Cincinnati started the game 4-6 from the field, meanwhile Utah opened the game with a 75% clip, (3-4 FG). Five of the Bearcats first nine points came off of Ute turnover's, which was a great sign to see for Cincinnati in the early minutes of this one.

The Bearcats quickly extended their lead to seven following a dunk from Bandaogo, which was quickly followed by a three from Lukosius, giving Cincinnati a 14-7 lead. Now, for Utah, they wasted no establishing the ball in the paint, as ten of their first 13 came from either a layup or dunk. Cincinnati was searching for a way to keep the Utes out of the paint early as things were starting to become extremely easy for guys like Ausar, who had eight of Utah's first 13 points.

Cincinnati's offense then would go ice cold, as they went 1-10 from the field, but along the way turned the ball over three times over the next two minutes. That prompted a near four-minute scoring draught, before James stopped the bleeding. The difference maker in the opening minutes was the fact Cincinnati punked the Utes on the glass early, as they outrebounded the Utes, 17-8 over the first ten minutes of play.

Utah was continuing to get to the rack with ease though, as 18 of their first 21 points came via layup or dunk, after an Ausar layup tied the game at 21. Then things quickly changed in favor of Cincinnati, as Josh Reed knocked down consecutive threes, forcing a Utah timeout. That sparked an 8-0 run to give Cincinnati a 29-21 lead following a James made jumper.

Reed, then extended the Bearcats lead back to six, after knocking down a huge step back, rainbow three that sent Fifth Third Arena into a frenzy. The junior wing has quickly cemented his role for the Bearcats over the recent week's and had no plans of slowing down following a career high 12 points in the Bearcats win over BYU on Saturday.

Cincinnati took a 42-36 lead into the break, led by James, who had a team high 11 points.

Cincinnati's offense remained steady as they finished the first half with shooting splits of 44/57/67%. However, the Utes shot nearly 50% from the field, while also going 50% from behind the arch, which simply kept them in this game, to say the least.

Reed continued to be a huge spark for Cincinnati, as the junior recorded nine points on a perfect (3-3 FG). The difference maker though in this one, was that Cincinnati dominated the glass over the first twenty minutes of play, as they outrebounded Utah 24-12, with 11 of those on the offensive board.

Now for Utah, they tore the Bearcats interior defense to shreds as they racked up 22 points in the paint. Louvering anchored the Utes offense after racking up 12 points on a perfect (6-6) performance, with all six coming via layup or dunk. Cincinnati was going to have to anchor down in the second half, or this could become a very interesting game in the second half, due to how easy Utah was getting to the rim.

Utah came out of the locker room on a 11-2 run following six quick points from Madsen. The Utes went four-for-four to open the half, with three of those field goals from behind the arch, which resulted in an early timeout from Wes Miller, with the Bearcats trailing 47-44.

Cincinnati responded quickly, after James continued to will the Bearcats, as he found a high flying Bandaogo for the slam to give the Bearcats a 48-47 lead. James, followed suit with a three from the top of the key, giving him seven of the Bearcats first nine points to start the second half.

That is when Madsen took over for the Utes, as the former Bearcat quickly made his presence known in the second half. Madsen rattled off 12 quick points as the Utes weren't shying away from the Bearcats this evening. Cincinnati took a 60-57 lead with 12:00 minutes remaining in the second half after James finished through contact for the three-point play.

Cincinnati then extended their lead to eight, after Lukosius knocked down both from the line. Utah quickly responded after Madsen knocked down his eight three of the night, which was then followed by an Erickson three, cutting the deficit to two, with 8:13 to go.

The Bearcats offense then went stagnant over the next three minutes before Thomas silenced the run after burying a midrange jumper. The veteran guard then followed suit on the next possession with a great pick-and-roll action, that sprung Mitchell free for a huge dunk, giving Cincinnati a 72-68 lead with 5:46 to go.

Game was then tied up at 72, before a nine-point run from Cincinnati that all started with a Reed floater. That sparked everything for Cincinnati, as they then secured two huge offensive rebounds, and quickly turned that into five points. following the Reed free throws, James found Bandaogo for the ally-oop that sent Fifth Third to another level as Cincinnati was looking to silence the Utes here in the final minutes.

The Utes offense would go silent over the final three minutes as Cincinnati ended the game on a 13-3 run. From the moment Reed hit the floater, the Utes saw all the life sucked out of them down the stretch. Especially, as Madsen went on to miss his final seven shots over that span and couldn't get any momentum after an electric first 32 minutes of play.

Up Next

Cincinnati will travel to Ames, Iowa to take on nationally ranked Iowa State (19-5, 9-4 Big 12) on Saturday, with tip-off set for 4pm.