The Cincinnati Bearcats were looking to get a tough road win against the Wichita State Shockers on Saturday afternoon. The Bearcats have cleaned up their act some winning three games in a row since slipping on the road against ECU on January 5th. Could the Bearcats take advantage of the young Shockers?
In the first half it was a rock fight, but Nysier Brooks was aggressive early on both sides of the floor scoring four points, grabbing three rebounds and blocking a shot to help the Bearcats get out to an early 7-3 lead during the first sequence. Besides the early Brooks explosion it wasn’t much excitement to talk about they only shot 36.7% from the floor, 16.7% from the line and 58.3 from the line. They uncharacteristically had seven turnovers in the first half, but they won the boards by two.
In the second half it was a lot of back and forth because of the strong play of Markis McDuffie who finished with 21 points, five rebounds and three assists. Timely buckets by Williams, Justin Jenifer and Jarron Cumberland helped lead the Bearcats to victory. The sequence that sealed it was when Cumberland drove the right baseline and was fouled by Erik Stevenson, Stevenson bucked up with Cumberland after Cumberland walked towards his area and Stevenson and head coach Gregg Marshall received technical fouls. Jenifer made all four technical free throws and then Cumberland made his two free throws to give the Bearcats an 11 point lead that they wouldn’t look back from. It was good to see Jenifer made some threes on the road, Brooks and Tre Scott rebound the ball well.
Cumberland scored a team high 18 points, Jenifer finished with 17 points and Williams finished with 14 points.
With the 66-55 win the Bearcats are now 16-3 overall and 5-1 in the AAC with no games until Thursday when they face Tulsa at Fifth Third Arena.
Jarron Cumberland and Justin Jenifer combined to score 35 points as @GoBearcatsMBB went on the road and beat Wichita State 66-55 in #AmericanHoops Saturday action. pic.twitter.com/azNUGbVXFS
— American MBB (@American_MBB) January 19, 2019
