The Cincinnati Bearcats welcomed the Northern Kentucky Norse to Fifth Third Arena on a nice Sunday afternoon. Cincinnati game into the game 3-0, while Northern Kentucky came into the game 1-2. Last year, NKU beat the Bearcats 64-51, at Truist Arena, would the Bearcats avenge their loss to their cross river rival?
The first half for the Bearcats was about cleaning up the boards as the first few minutes NKU did a great job on the glass which helped Sam Vinson and crew keep the game close. Ody Oguama picked up two quick fouls which made him have to sit down at the 13:50 mark of the first half. Viktor Lakhin and Dan Skillings did a great job on the boards with nine and seven respectively. Nice plays from Day Day Thomas and John Newman helped the Bearcats go on a 12-2 run the final 2:47 to give them a 45-31 lead heading into the half.
Skillings had 14 points and seven rebounds, followed by Lakhin with 11 points and nine rebounds, both Newman and Thomas had nine points a piece in the first half. NKU was lead by Vinson’s eight points.
In the second half Skillings and Thomas started where they left off scoring nine of first 10 points, Thomas knocked down a 3 and a nice pull up jumper, while Skillings made two free throw and a nice two hand dunk that received a technical to push the lead to 55-39. With 13:23 left in the half the Bearcats pushed the lead to 20 after a 3 by Jizzle James, the assist came from a nice pass by Lakhin (64-44). Skillings had a career high of 25 points on 8-of-12 from the field, 3-of-5 from 3 and 6-of-8 from the line, while also grabbing nine rebounds and two blocks. Thomas had a new career high of 20 points on 8-of-11 from the field.
Lakhin finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds.
The Bearcats would end up winning 90-66, moving to 4-0 and avenging their loss to NKU last season in a big way.
