Wednesday night the Cincinnati Bearcats faced the Virginia Tech Hokies at Fifth Third Arena in the First Round of the NIT. Cincinnati comes into the game 21-12 overall, while Virginia Tech is 19-14, would they be able to extend their season to face Hofstra in the Second Round of the NIT?
Cincinnati started off hot behind the inside play of Ody Oguama and Viktor Lakhin as they scored seven of the Bearcats first 10 points. Freshman wing Dan Skillings provided a quick spark scoring four points, grabbing two rebounds and an assist in his first 4 minutes of play. The trio allowed the Bearcats to have a 16-14 lead with 10:45 left. With the lead going back and forth most of the half Landers Nolley picked up his second foul with 3:30 left in the half with his team up 2 points (27-25). Nolley ended up picking up his third foul and Virginia Tech went on a 8-4 run to give them a 33-29 lead at the half.
Cincinnati was led by David DeJulius with seven points, Oguama and Nolley both had six. They won the glass 19-17, but had six turnovers to Tech’s two, which led to Tech winning the points off turnovers 9-2.
Virginia Tech pushed the lead to 6 points at 40-34, and then the Bearcats started to make a run Nolley made a pull up, followed by Lakhin getting dirty in the paint and then knocking down both free throws. A non-call on Oguama led to a dunk by Hunter Cattoor, but Mika Adams-Woods answered with a big 3 to bring the Bearcats within 1 point. Tech scored again Landers Nolley hit a big 3 to tie it at 54. Inspired play by DeJulius as he got fouled made both free throws and completed and 1, giving the Bearcats a 58-54 lead. A few big 3’s by Jeremiah Davenport gave the Bearcats some room to breathe, to close out the game DeJulius hit a big time floater with 1:15 left to push the lead to 6 (74-68) and they went on to a 81-72 win.
DeJulius finished with a game high 21 points, six rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Nolley finished with 15 points. and 12 rebounds. The Bearcats dominated the glass winning 42-29, while only having 10 turnovers.
Cincinnati will now play Hofstra on Saturday at 2 pm on ESPN+ on the road.
