The Cincinnati Bearcats made a trip up to Oxford, Ohio to take on a familiar foe in the Miami RedHawks. The Bearcats were looking to get back on track after starting the year 5-0 to begin the year before dropping back-to-back games. The Bearcats came out with a familiar lineup as they lined up with David DeJulius (guard), Mika Adams-Woods (guard), followed by John Newman III (guard) after missing the last game, Jeremiah Davenport (forward) and Abdul Ado (center). The two teams who have had a deep history with each other were ready to tip-off for their first matchup since 2011. Would Cincinnati be able to get off the snide and could the Bearcats make it 6 in a row against Miami of Ohio?
The Bearcats started the game off fast on the offensive side. The Bearcats jumped out to an 8-2 lead after a couple of 3 pointers from Jeremiah Davenport and John Newman III. Cincinnati’s lead would propel to 7 after DeJulius would hit from behind the arc to increase the lead 17-10. Miami (OH) would come alive after that as they would go on a 6-0 run to cut the Bearcat lead to 1. Miami (OH) would pick up their first lead after trading a couple of baskets with Cincinnati. Mekhi Lairy would hit a 3 and Miami (OH) was doing exactly what they wanted to do against the Bearcats bigs. Cincinnati would be able to climb back after being down by 4 as the Bearcats got a big 3 from Mike Saunders, Jr. and the Bearcats took the size advantage into consideration feeding Ado in the paint on back to back possessions to put the Bearcats up 27-24. Miami and Cincinnati would both have trouble shooting the ball to end the half as Cincinnati would go over 4 minutes without a basket which allowed Miami Ohio to get 5 unanswered points to gain the lead back at 29-27. Just before the half though Jeremiah Davenport drilled the 3 and Cincinnati took a slim 30-29 lead in the half.
The Bearcats killer in the first half was not shooting the ball well and forcing up really bad shots. Cincinnati shot 12-of-36 from the field and 6-of-20 from 3 in the first half. Cincinnati’s leading scorer at the half was Abdul Ado and Jeremiah Davenport with six points each. Cincinnati needed to shoot the ball better and force Miami to work against their size if they were going to pull this off. Would the Bearcats meet the challenge?
Miami (OH) would start off the second half with a 5-0 scoring run as they jumped ahead of the Bearcats, 34-30. Cincinnati would get a 5-0 run of their own to reclaim the lead and Miami (OH) would follow the back and forth tempo to keep the score nodded up at 37 with 15:48 to go in the game. Miami (OH) would open up their largest lead of the game as they would go on an 8-0 run and had the Bearcats in shambles down 45-37 with 13 minutes to go. Cincinnati would have to play catch up from there which all started with the bigs of Cincinnati. The Bearcats finally started to use their height to their advantage feeding the big men Abdul Ado and Hayden Koval to cut the lead. Davenport would follow this with a huge 3 to cut the lead to 1 forcing a Miami Oh timeout. Out of the timeout, Miami (OH) increased their lead to 3 before another Jeremiah Davenport 3 had us nodded up again at 49 apiece with 5:45 to go. Cincinnati would get two quick baskets from Davenport and Koval to increase the lead to 4 with 3:57 to go in the game. The Bearcats and the RedHawks would go back and forth in the last 4 minutes scoring baskets and trading blows to keep things close in the last minute or so. Miami (OH) would get a 3 from Mekhi Lairy to cut the lead to 1 at 59-58 with 48 seconds to go. The Bearcats would be fouled multiple times setting up an opportunity for the Bearcats to bury the RedHawks with free throws. The Bearcats would unfortunately not be able to hit the free throws setting up a final chance for the RedHawks. But the Bearcats defense stood strong and stopped the RedHawks’ attempt to seal the victory and get out of Oxford 6-2 on the year.
The Bearcats battled the RedHawks all night to get a close hard-fought victory. The Bearcats shot 24-66 (36.4%) holding the RedHawks to 22-58 (37.9%). The Bearcats shot 9-33 (27.3%) from behind the arc while the RedHawks shot 6-22 (27.3%) from behind the arc. The Bearcats leading scorers were Abdul Ado who picked up a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds and Jeremiah Davenport who had 14 and eight rebounds in the contest. The leading scorer for the RedHawks was Mekhi Lairy with 20 points and Dalonte Brown who had 14 to lead the RedHawk offense. The Bearcats earned the tough win on the road to move to 6-2 on the year. The Bearcats will head back home to take on Bryant at 7 pm in Fifth Third Arena.
