This evening, Wes Miller and the Bearcats (14-8, 5-4 AAC) are looking to bounce back in the win column after suffering consecutive losses to Memphis and Houston. The Golden Hurricane enter this one (5-14, 1-8 AAC) under head coach Eric Konkol, who is in his first season coaching the Golden Hurricane after spending the last seven seasons at Louisiana Tech.
The Golden Hurricane are led by junior point guard Sam Griffith. Griffith, is averaging nearly 14 points per game this season, while shooting nearly 40% from the field. Along with Griffith, the Golden Hurricane are led by Jeriah Horne, who is the team’s leading scorer, as he averages nearly 16 points per game, while shooting 44% from the field. This is a Golden Hurricane team that gives up nearly 70 points per game. The Golden Hurricane are also coming off a great 81-79 victory over Tulane in overtime last week as they picked up their first conference win of the season.
The Bearcats are led by Landers Nolley, who is averaging nearly 16 points per game, while shooting nearly 50% from the field. Nolley has found himself on the AAC Honor Roll the last three weeks, as the junior guard has turned things up a notch to start conference play and became a key leader for the Bearcats. Wes Miller and the Bearcats were looking to get back in the win column as they looked to build some momentum heading into a very tough UCF team come this weekend.
The Bearcats would strike first after Landers Nolley knocked down a midrange jumper. However, Nolley would pick up a foul quickly after just 30 seconds into this one. Nolley, looked to maybe get his arm rolled up after diving for a loose ball. Nolley was spotted being looked at by Bearcats medical staff shortly after before checking back in only missing around one minute of play. However, something to keep an eye on as this one unfolds, as Nolley is the Bearcats leading scorer who averages 16 points per game.
The Bearcats would find themselves in a 1-of-9 slump, as the Golden Hurricane were doing a great job of getting stops on the defensive end, as they held the Bearcats to just 5-15 from the field to start this one, while just 0-of-7 from behind the arch. However, The Bearcats would start to open things up a little bit as they led the Golden Hurricane 19-14 at the under eight media break after a six-point run.
The Bearcats would quickly force Eric Konkol to call a timeout after a huge putback slam from Lakhin off the DeJulius miss that made it a 13-0 run, giving the Bearcats a 24-14 lead with just under seven minutes left in the first half. The Bearcats would get huge minutes from Daniel Skillings and Kalu Ezipke, as Ezipke was doing a great job containing Tulsa forward Bryant Selebangue, who entered tonight averaging a near double-double. Selebangue was held to scoreless for the first 18 minutes, before knocking down two quick free throws for his first points of the game.
After 20 minutes the Bearcats would lead the Golden Hurricane 36-18, despite a rough shooting performance from both teams in the first half. The Bearcats would hold Tulsa, to just 21% from the field in the first half, while holding them 0-of-6 from beyond the arch. The Bearcats dominated as they had 20 of those 39 points come off the bench after Jeremiah Davenport caught fire down the final stretch of the first half, as he led the way with 11 points. Dan Skillings, and Landers Nolley added a smooth seven points each. Nolley was held to just 3-of-10 shooting as he continued to shake off what looked to be an early wrist injury after diving for a loose ball in the opening minutes of this one.
The Bearcats did a great job on Bryant Selebangue in the first 20 minutes as he entered tonight averaging a near double-double, as they held him to just two points on 0-of-3 shooting in the first half. Wes Miller and staff were doing a great job rotating Kalu Ezipke, Viktor Lakhin and Ody Oguama on the Tulsa big man.
