The Cincinnati Bearcats men’s basketball team got their 2022-23 season off to an impressive start. They defeated the Chaminade Silverswords by a score of 98-55 on Monday night at Fifth Third Arena.
In past seasons, Cincinnati has not been known as an offensive juggernaut by any means. They created a brand of defensive relentlessness under former head coach Mick Cronin, frequently ranking as one of the very best defensive units in all of college basketball. While those teams consistently limited opposing offenses, they rarely unleashed scoring outbursts of their own, and often times won the ugly way. In the season opener of Wes Miller’s second season as head coach of the Bearcats, they flashed some serious potential on offense that had been nonexistent in prior seasons.
The Bearcats got off to a sizzling start shooting the ball, going on an 18-7 run that included a pair of 3-pointers from both Landers Nolley II and Jeremiah Davenport. Cincinnati was perfect from the field during the run, making their first seven shots to start the game.
Graduate senior and veteran leader David DeJulius noticed the difference on offense right out of the gate. “I feel like we’ve got a lot of guys that can play this year, so I don’t really have to force as much. I can let the game come to me,” he said. “My mindset is to score. My mindset is to make a play. When you [have] guys like we have, they make it so much easier to make plays and make it so much easier for my game as well,” he added.
DeJulius was phenomenal on offense for Cincinnati. He scored a game-high 24 points and converted on 9 of 15 shots from the field. Memphis transfer Landers Nolley had a statement performance in his first game as a Bearcat. The senior guard had 19 points with four rebounds and four assists. The two longest tenured Bearcats, Mika Adams-Woods and Jeremiah Davenport, each contributed nicely as well. Adams-Woods scored 13 points with three assists and two rebounds. Davenport added 14 points of his own and grabbed four rebounds as well.
By the 10-minute mark in the first half, Cincinnati had already put the game out of reach. A DeJulius dunk in transition following a Daniel Skillings Jr. block expanded the Cincinnati lead to 31-12. The final 10 minutes of the first half were much closer, as Cincinnati only outscored Chaminade by five points. They still took a comfortable 54-28 lead into the locker room.
The Silverswords hit their first two shots of the second half to cut into the lead. A Scott Ator layup followed by a 3-pointer from Isaac Amaral-Artharee drew Chaminade closer. Amaral-Artharee led the Silverswords with 16 points and was the only player to reach double digits on the team. Cincinnati responded quickly, breaking up any sort of momentum Chaminade had built. The Bearcats showed their ability to spread the ball around the floor, with six different players scoring during their 17-3 run that blew the game wide open.
Wes Miller attributed much of Cincinnati’s success on offense to great ball movement throughout the game. “We’ve really stressed sharing the ball, making the simple play [and] playing together, from the first day of summer until now. The guys have really embraced that,” he stated. “It was really good to see us share the ball tonight. I thought the willingness to share the ball has been there throughout the preseason and when the lights came on tonight it was still there. That was a good sign for our team.”
Indiana transfer Rob Phinisee lead the Bearcats with eight assists in 19 minutes of action off the bench.
Not only did Cincinnati show up on the offensive side of the ball, but defensively as well. The Bearcats held Chaminade to 38.9 percent shooting from the field and just 33 percent from the 3-point line. They out-rebounded the Silverswords 41-24 and were able to grab 30 defensive rebounds. Notably, they only allowed five total offensive rebounds for Chaminade, winning 30 of 35 defensive rebound opportunities.
The turnover margin was another aspect of the game that favored Cincinnati greatly. Cincinnati forced 22 turnovers on the defensive end and only gave the ball away 11 times on offense. Miller and his coaching staff worked hard with their players to implement full-court pressure to try and force turnovers. “It was good to see us have success in the full-court defensively. Nobody on this roster has played this way so it’s good to create some belief in what we’re doing,” he said. “I think the guys are starting to see that it can be really effective. I thought we took a step [forward] tonight because we’ve been working hard on it in practice.”
The Bearcats had 13 players log at least three minutes of playing time in the blowout win. Early-season minutes can pay dividends later in the year for bench players not expected to play a huge role. If called upon in a crucial spot with little playing time to that point, the lack of experience could hurt.
Miller was impressed by the overall performance by his team but knows it only gets harder moving forward. “Seeing them make some plays, have some fun and taste winning, I enjoyed that part of it, so there’s a lot of positives,” he said. “The level [of competition] is going to increase here as we get later into the week and play a good Cleveland State team. I think there was some good stuff tonight, some stuff we can build on, but I don’t want to overreact either. We’ve got some work to do and we’ll take a look at the film, learn from it and try to get better against a higher-level opponent on Thursday.”
Cincinnati will square off against Cleveland State on Thursday night at Fifth Third Arena. The Vikings were upset at home by Notre Dame College, a Division II school, falling 72-68 in a stunner.