Sunday afternoon the Cincinnati Bearcats 11-5 overall (2-1 in the AAC) welcomed No. 2 Houston Cougars 15-1 overall (3-0 in the AAC) to Fifth Third Arena. While Cincinnati was playing Houston, Paycor Stadium was rocking watching the Bengals play the Ravens, to say today was a big sports day in Cincy is an understatement. For the second game in a row Ody Oguama started for Jeremiah Davenport.
Cincinnati came out on a 5-0 run started with a Landers Nolley three, but Houston went on a 10-0 run before Nolley hit another three to stop the bleeding. Cincinnati started the first two segments great on the boards, but the first four minutes they had five turnovers which allowed Houston to get easy buckets. J’wan Roberts had eight points during the first two segments using his frame to get high percentage shots. Nolley hit two 3’s to tie up the game at 18, but afterwards Houston went on a 12-5 run to push the lead up to 7. Cincinnati was led by Nolley and Mika Adams-Woods who both had 12 points, they scored 24 of the Bearcats 28 points in the first half. Houston was led by Jarace Walker who had 11 points on 5-of-9 from the field.
Houston started the second half on a 13-2 run to push the lead to 48-30 behind five Cincinnati turnovers and great Houston shooting. Walker created and scored during the first segment to help give some distance to the home team. Viktor Lakhin got active getting to the line six times, and David DeJulius hit his first shot which was a 3 to cut the lead to 15 with 7:35 in the second half. They went on a 15-5 run to cut the lead to 10, but after a bad foul call on Davenport, Tramon Mark hit a 3 on the same possession. Lakhin played great in the second half, but had a huge turnover that led to a Marcus Sasser dunk to put Houston back up 13 points with 3:54 left. Houston put the salt on the wound and ended beating Cincinnati, 72-59.
Cincinnati won the battle on the glass, 39-33, but lost the turnover battle 17-7 and Houston had 26 points off turnovers to Cincinnati’s four.
Adams-Woods led the way with a season high 19 points, followed by Lakhin with 16 points. Houston was led by Walker with 21 points.
Now Cincinnati is 11-6 overall and 2-2 in the AAC, they will play ECU at 9 pm on Wednesday on ESPNU.
