Late Saturday afternoon, the Cincinnati Bearcats 15-7 (4-5 in the Big 12) welcomed the No. 5 Houston Cougars 20-3 (7-3 in the Big 12) into Fifth Third Arena to renew their basketball rivalry in a new conference. The Bearcats are off a victory on the road against then No. 15 Texas Tech. They got great news today as C.J. Fredrick will play in his first game since December 22nd. Could the Bearcats make it two wins in a row against Top 25 teams?
The Bearcats allowed Houston to start with a 17-4 run, they didn’t get their first rebound until 15:25 left in the half. Houston’s toughness was a lot for the Bearcats to handle, after Day Day Thomas picked up a questionable blocking foul Jizzle James came in and led the Bearcats on a 6-2 run (19-10), hitting a jumper and a free throw. Houston went to push the lead to 27-15, but the play of Jamille Reynolds was key as he had a nasty tip dunk off a Dan Skillings miss from 3, that sent Fifth Third into a frenzy, Simas Lukošius banked a 3 to cut the lead to 3, 27-24, while pushing the Bearcats to a 7-0 run. The Cats ended up finishing on a 15-2 run to give them a 32-29 lead going into the half. The best thing that happened in the first half is Houston had a 15-4 gap on the glass and at the end it finished 21-17. Reynolds has four rebounds at the half, Skillings is leading the way in scoring with nine, followed by Bandaogo with six and James with five.
In the second half Dan Skillings started in place of Viktor Lakhin. After coming out to a 6-0 run, Houston answered with a 19-3 run of their own, where they used the glass to give them easier shots taking a 50-41 lead. Thomas made a few key buckets cutting the lead to 6, but a huge step back jumper by Emanuel Sharp, pushed it to 8 followed by a nice feed from Shead to Roberts for a two hand dunk, pushing the lead to 10 with 4:04 left. Lukošius knocked down a 3, followed by a steal and layup by Skillings, Newman made a bucket, then Mylik Wilson hit a jumper to push the lead back to 5, James knocked down both free throws, followed by Joseph Tugler splitting his free throws and then Reynolds making both of his cutting the lead to 2. LJ Cryer made a huge jumper over John Newman to push the lead back up to 4, after James was blocked at the rim, Ja’Vier Francis made a tip dunk to push it back up to 6. Newman split his free throws to cut the lead to 5. They were able to cut it to 3, but it wasn’t enough as Houston closed it out with a 67-62 win.
Houston won the glass 41-34 and hit timely shots. Skillings led the way with 13 points, Newman had a double double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Now, 15-8 overall and 4-6 in the Big 12. They will face Iowa State on Tuesday at Fifth Third Arena at 7 pm.
