The short drive across the Ohio River for the Cincinnati men’s basketball team proved to be a forgetful trip, as the NKU Norse defeated the Bearcats 64-51 on Wednesday. In their first game away from home this season, Cincinnati succumbed to the atmosphere at Truist Arena, wavering down the stretch during an unfathomably brutal second half and suffering their first loss of the season.
For the Bearcats, the game got off to an unpromising start. NKU was exceptional on offense for the first 10 minutes of the game while holding Cincinnati’s offense in check. The Norse took multiple nine-point leads throughout the first half. Marques Warrick led the scoring early for NKU with a quick 10 points by the 12:28 mark in the half. He finished with a game-high 22 points on 9-for-17 shooting, adding a career-high three blocks as well.
Speaking on his role with team, Warrick tries to follow the same plan for each game. “I try to go into every game with the same mindset,” he said. “I know my team needs me to do what I do on offense, and one of the things is score. Especially in games like this, that’s when they really need me. I live for those moments like this, it was good. I made some shots and we got the win.”
During the last several minutes of the half, Cincinnati eventually started to get rolling. Trailing 30-22 at the eight-minute media timeout, a David DeJulius jump shot following three consecutive Viktor Lakhin field goals evened up the score. The Bearcats would continue to add to their run and head to the locker room with a 40-36 advantage. They closed the half on an 18-6 run, significantly shifting momentum in their favor.
Despite blowing the early advantage, NKU began the second half with an emphatic start on both sides of the ball. Warrick stayed hot, making the first two field goals by either team to even up the score at 40. The Norse scored the first 10 points of the half and held Cincinnati scoreless for over five minutes of play. The halftime adjustments for NKU stifled Cincinnati’s offense, as the Bearcats only scored 11 points on four field goals in the second half.
NKU head coach Darrin Horn acknowledged the defensive prowess shown by his team late in the game. “I think the biggest thing is we were really good fundamentally defensively in the second half,” he said. “We guarded the ball, we kept it in front of us and that allowed us to get home to their shooters. We were really concerned, they’ve got three dynamic scorers when they get going on the floor. They’re guys who can create tough shots and make them. We wanted to do a good job of trying to stay with those guys.”
Referring the trio of DeJulius, Jeremiah Davenport and Landers Nolley II, Horn and his staff successfully implemented a defensive scheme to limit the explosiveness of Cincinnati’s top playmakers. They combined to shoot 9-for-33 from the field and were particularly bad from 3-point range, going a combined 4-for-17 from behind the arc. Free throw shooting for Cincinnati was also markedly bad as the Bearcats shot just 5-for-13 from the line.
NKU sophomore guard Sam Vinson provided a spark on offense while forcing Cincinnati to focus on his defensive presence. He scored 15 points with three assists on offense and collected all four of NKU’s steals with two blocks as well. Horn singled out Vinson’s performance, pointing out the lack of live play he has seen in recent days. “Sam Vinson has not had a live repetition in eight days,” he stated. “When we threw it up tonight and he ran down the floor, that’s the first time he’s been on the floor with nine other guys in eight days. The guy is just an absolute warrior.”
After an impressive first half for Lakhin offensively, he was shut down by the Norse defense for the rest of the game. Cincinnati settled for jump shots late in the game, as they were unable to get anything going inside the paint. They went cold and could not string a run together throughout the entirety of the second half. Lakhin finished with nine points and nine rebounds, leading the team in both categories.
The Bearcats cut the deficit to six points at the 5:34 mark in the second half, but the Norse closed the game out on a 9-2 run that buried Cincinnati.
Head coach Wes Miller voiced his frustrations on the inept offensive performance from his team. “You score 11 points in a half, it’s going to be hard to win a basketball game in college basketball,” he exclaimed. “Not to mention nine turnovers, so you’re not putting the ball in the hoop but you’re not even getting shots up on nine possessions. We had our chances, we had some good moments, but 11 points isn’t going to cut it. We have to make sure we handle those moments and that frustration a little bit better as a group.”
Despite 12 offensive boards for the Bearcats, NKU out-rebounded Cincinnati 35-32 for the game. Norse forward Chris Brandon accounted for nearly half of the team’s rebounds. He reeled in 16 total rebounds, 14 of them coming on the defensive side of the ball. Surprisingly, this was the second-highest rebound total for Brandon in a game season. He had 17 rebounds in the season opener for NKU against Kent State. The 6-foot-8 senior leads all of college basketball with an absurd 15 rebounds per game.
Following the win, Brandon spoke on the post-game celebration on the court. “It was cool, it was nice,” he said. “We were doing what we do at the end of home games. We get the win, they’ll take a picture and everybody stormed the floor so it got lit. Everybody started jumping in.”
The road ahead does not get any easier for Cincinnati. They will travel to Hawaii for the Main Jim Maui Invitational that kicks off on Monday. In the first matchup of the tournament for the Bearcats, they will look to bounce back against No. 14 Arizona.