The Cincinnati men’s basketball team was victorious again in their game against Bryant on Sunday. The Bearcats won by a final score of 97-71 and showed signs of overall roster development in the win. Cincinnati remains unbeaten at home on the season, improving to 5-0 at Fifth Third Arena.
Following some early back-and-forth scoring from the two teams, Cincinnati began to pull away midway through the first half. Just under the 10-minute mark, Cincinnati had already doubled the Bulldogs on the scoreboard, with a 22-11 advantage. The Bearcats proceeded to go on a 14-2 run over the next six minutes to extend the lead even further. A number of different players contributed during the run with four different players accounting for the points over the stretch. Among the scorers was freshman guard Dan Skillings Jr. who had not seen nearly as much time on the court as others before Sunday. He played a career-high 21 minutes and posted his first career double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.
The 6-foot-6 lengthy guard was pleased with his performance in the win. “It was good to see a couple [shots] go in”, he said. “I’m starting to feel good with it, and my teammates encourage me every day and tell me to keep shooting. I’ll give big claps to my teammates and my coaching staff, they really keep me going and tell me to keep shooting, so it keeps me confident.”
Needing a late first-half run to get back into the game, Bryant closed the half outscoring Cincinnati 11-4. The Bearcats still took a sizable lead into the locker room, leading 40-24 at the break.
Cincinnati did not skip a beat offensively, as they shot lights out to begin the second half. Similar to the first half, they were able to spread the ball to multiple players, with six different players scoring during a 20-7 run to open the half. The Bearcats lead reached 60-31 with over 13 minutes remaining, giving head coach Wes Miller some flexibility to go deep into his bench for the remainder of the game.
One of the options Miller resorted to was another freshman in Josh Reed. Similar to Skillings, Reed had not seen much playing time to this point of the season. He set a career-high in minutes played with 18 and scored a career-high 10 points while almost notching a double-double, collecting nine rebounds.
“Those guys (Skillings and Reed) are getting even more opportunity now, and they’re starting to make the most of it and everybody can see their ability,” said Miller of his two freshman. “The quicker we can bring them along, the better our team’s going to be. There are some things there I was pleased with.”
Cincinnati would expand their lead to 30 points on multiple separate occasions, and would go on to win the game by a final of 97-71.
The standout games from the two Cincinnati freshmen were just a couple among some impressive individual showings for the Bearcats. Sophomore Viktor Lakhin added another dominant performance and picked up his second consecutive double-double, tallying 16 points and 13 rebounds. No Bearcat posted higher point or rebound totals for the game.
Senior guard Jeremiah Davenport had 14 points on 5-for-12 shooting, including 3-for-7 from 3-point range. He also added three rebounds, an assist and a steal.
Fellow guard David DeJulius also scored 14 points, doing so on 7-for-13 shooting from the field. He also collected a season-high seven assists, four rebounds and a steal.
Sophomore Jarrett Hensley also reached double figures in scoring for the day (10 points), making it a total of six different Bearcats to reach double-digit scoring in the win.
The offensive effort was a collective one at that, but Cincinnati’s defensive effort was what caught the eye of Miller. “I think they’re starting to wrap their heads around how we have to approach it, the identity we have to have on the defensive end,” he stated. “You take four or five charges, that’s always a really good sign, guys willing to rotate for each other and put their body on the ball. That’s the part of the night that I was pleased with, even though I wasn’t pleased with every play, I was pleased with the intent to want to start defending and rebounding. You look down and you’re 56-41 (rebound differential) on the board, you always like to see that. Bryant, who is a good offensive team, shoots 29 percent for the game, so those are some of the things that you’re happy about.”
As Miller stated, the Bearcats out-rebounded their opponent yet again. The success for the Bearcats seems to heavily depend on their ability to rebound. The Bearcats have been out-rebounded by their opponent in all three losses this season. They have out-rebounded their opponent in all six wins.
Even though his position does not demand it, Skillings aims to be aggressive crashing the glass. “Just growing up playing street ball with a bunch of family and friends, I always wanted the ball in my hands,” he said. “I’ll always just go find the ball wherever I can get it. If I didn’t get a pass from my teammate I would want to go get it off the board. So I just learned from that.”
Bryant shot just under 30 percent from the field, making just 23 of their 77 attempts. Cincinnati was much more efficient, going 38-for-73 from the field. The Bulldogs attempted an astonishing 39 shots from long distance, but made just eight. Cincinnati was much better, going 10-for-28 on 3-pointers. Free throw shooting continues to be a major struggle for the Bearcats, as they made just 11 of 21 attempts.
The always highly-anticipated Crosstown Shootout is next for Cincinnati. The Xavier Musketeers will make the short drive to Fifth Third Arena to battle their in-city rivals. Xavier has a 6-3 record this season and has suffered from a brutal schedule, leading to some early-season losses. Their three defeats have come at the hands of No. 12 Indiana, No. 8 Duke and No. 6 Gonzaga by a combined 13 points. They recently defeated West Virginia on Saturday, winning 84-74.