The 7-4 Cincinnati Bearcats welcomed the 5-5 LaSalle Explorers to Fifth Third Arena on a cold Saturday afternoon. Cincinnati is fresh off a 103-76 against Miami of Ohio would they be able to continue the success started in that game?
Cincinnati started off the game with a 9-0 run and never looked back. They were led by David DeJulius and Jeremiah Davenport who had 10 and 11 points a piece respectfully. The play of the first half was Landers Nolley breaking off a LaSalle player, making him fall and then proceeding to hit the three point shot. They shot 40% from the field while holding LaSalle to 30% shooting from the field. The only thing bad about the first half was LaSalle out rebounded Cincinnati 20-15.
During the first half four star commit Jizzle James got a warm welcome from #BearcatNation.
In the second half it was more of the same as they had the lead as high as 20 points. They saw valuable play from freshman Josh Reed and Dan Skillings as with more than 8 minutes left in the second half Skillings had three blocks and Reed had one. DeJulius and Lakhin both were the steadying forces on offense for the Bearcats. With 7:55 left in the half LaSalle had 22 turnovers which shows how aggressive the Bearcats defense was. All five starters scored in double digits led by Viktor Lakhin and DeJulius with 17 a piece. Mika Adams-Woods finished with 11 points, Nolley had 10 points, four rebounds and a team high six assists. Davenport finished with 11 points and a team high eight rebounds.
They didn’t win the rebound battle losing 39-33, but they caused 25 turnovers and shot 28 free throws. Now Cincinnati is 8-4 overall after being LaSalle 78-60. They will play their last non-conference game against Detroit-Mercy on Wednesday at 7 pm.
