Cincinnati ended their trip to Maui on a positive note as they defeated the Louisville Cardinals, 81-62. The win secures a seventh-place finish for the Bearcats in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational, as Louisville finishes last. Cincinnati improves to 4-3 on the young season after dropping their last three games on the road. The Cardinals continue to struggle early on, as they have yet to win a single game this season.
It was a tight contest throughout the first half, as neither team took a lead larger than four points. Late in the half, Cincinnati connected on a plethora of 3-pointers in an effort to pull away from Louisville. For a roughly eight-minute stretch to close out the half, Cincinnati drilled six 3-pointers. Landers Nolley II accounted for two of Cincinnati’s late triples while Mika Adams-Woods had one for himself. David DeJulius hit three triples from deep during the stretch, including two in the last three Bearcats’ possessions. His last 3-pointer was a buzzer beater from just outside the logo at half court to give Cincinnati a 31-30 lead at the break.
A graduate senior and veteran on the team, DeJulius knows the importance of moving forward after losses. “It’s a quick turn around so you don’t really have much time to sit and sulk about a loss or how you played,” he said. “We had pretty close to a flawless game plan heading in [against] a great team. It was a collective effort and we have a team that plays collectively like that. It allows my job to be a lot easier.”
The importance of DeJulius to the Bearcats is evident in his season splits. In losses, he is averaging just 6.3 points per game on 26.7 percent shooting from the field, including 2-for-13 shooting from 3-point range. In wins, DeJulius has averaged 22.5 points per game on 55 percent shooting from the field, with a superb 13-for-24 success rate on 3-pointers. He scored a season-high 26 points on 19 attempts from the field, 14 of those from behind the 3-point line in the win.
Head coach Wes Miller pointed out the playmaking ability of a number of different players on the roster, including DeJulius. “We have some guys that can make some plays,” he stated. “Landers Nolley, David DeJulius, Jeremiah Davenport, Mika Adams-Woods, Viktor Lakhin, and there’s others. We’ve got some guys that can make some offensive plays, we’re going to be a good team.”
Among the players Miller praised, Nolley was exceptional against Louisville as well. The senior guard scored 21 points, grabbed four rebounds and collected two assists. His overall efficiency was impressive as well, as he shot 8-for-12 from the field and 5-for-8 from 3-point range. Nolley is shooting nearly 50 percent from the field and 43 percent from long distance on the season.
One of the many veteran leaders, Adams-Woods also contributed nicely for Cincinnati. The senior point guard scored 10 points while collecting five assists and three rebounds.
After entering the start of the second half leading by just one point, Cincinnati began pulling away immediately. DeJulius buried another 3-pointer, and a Lakhin dunk following an offensive rebound gave Cincinnati their largest lead of the game at six points. At the 15:40 mark in the half, leading by three, the Bearcats scored 11 unanswered points to break the game open. Lakhin scored six of the 11 points during the run and capped it off with a steal and dunk in transition to expand the lead to 14.
In the midst of a breakout season, Lakhin is proving to be an impactful presence down low for the Bearcats. The second-year forward scored 12 points with four rebounds and two steals in the win. He is averaging 11 points with 6.7 rebounds per game, a considerable improvement from last season.
Louisville would cut the lead to 10 points on numerous occasions in the second half. Cincinnati, however, responded each time, preventing the Cardinals from reaching a single-digit deficit for the rest of the game.
After noting there was not a major strategic halftime adjustment, Miller credited his players on their second-half improvements. “I thought the guys shared the ball a lot better, I thought [the ball] was sticking a little bit in the first half,” he said. “I thought the ball popped around a little bit more, we made the extra pass, and that always gives you some energy. You’re doing that and you shoot 61 percent in the second half, we have a team that can be really prolific offensively. When the ball pops around it makes it a little easier on everybody.”
While he did not make a huge impact scoring the ball, Davenport was distributing the ball well for Cincinnati. He dished out six assists while grabbing six boards, and even picked up a couple of steals. Davenport led or shared the lead in each of these categories for the Bearcats in the win. He did, however, score just three points on 1-for-7 shooting, making this the fourth consecutive game in which he has scored 10 points or fewer.
Cincinnati took care of the ball well, posting an assist to turnover ratio of 17-to-10. Comparatively, Louisville posted a 10-15 turnover ratio for the game.
After a rather humbling road trip, DeJulius is counting on the maturity of the team to keep Cincinnati afloat. “We have an experienced group, which is vital in today’s college basketball,” he said. “We have a group of guys who have been through some adversity and just want to win. I feel like that’s the recipe for winning, and I feel like we’re the kind of team that will only continue to get better as time goes. So we will be a better team in a couple weeks than we are now, and we will be a better team a month from now than we [will be] then.”
Cincinnati heads back home to play NJIT in the first of seven consecutive games at Fifth Third Arena, beginning Wednesday. The Highlanders have struggled to begin the season, with just a 1-5 record through six games. Their lone win came against Sacred Heart on Nov. 22 as the road underdog.