The (17-9) Cincinnati Bearcats hosted the (20-6) Wichita State Shockers on Sunday afternoon in Fifth Third Arena. The last time these two teams played the Bearcats won 80-79 on the road in a close, hard fought game. The Shockers were coming off a 10 points win against South Florida and the Bearcats were coming off a home double OT loss to UCF. With Memphis beating Houston, it gave the chance for the Bearcats to move back into first place in the American Athletic Conferece with a win against the Shockers. Cincinnati leads the all-time series 23-12, 12-4 in Cincinnati.
It was a slow start for the Bearcats, they didn’t get their first points of the game until the 16-minute mark and the point was off a free throw. Keith Williams had two early fouls, within three minutes of the game, and was subbed out for Jaevin Cumblerand. Tre Scott continued on his hot streak, scoring 5 of the 6 of UC’s first points. He seemed to be the only one awake for the first part of the first half. Cincinnati’s head coach John Brannen brought in a lot people off of the bench and they performed well. Zach Harvey and Jae. Cumberland gave the team a big spark and got the team back in the game. The Shockers gained a lot of momentum around the 3-minute mark and gave themselves a bit of a lead. The crowd got back in the game at the very end of the first half, giving the team some energy. The Bearcats used that energy to regain the lead before going into halftime and went in with a 31-28 lead. Scott led the team in points and rebounds yet again, with eight and three, and Jaevin led the team in assists with three.
The second half started out all Wichita as they tried to get the lead back, but the Bearcats kept their foot on the gas and didn’t let the Shockers come too close to their lead. Jar. Cumberland really started to play like he needed to and started to carry the team. Williams did not have a very good game. He didn’t play almost at all in the first half and in the second half he couldn’t get himself any points. With just over six minutes left to play, the Shockers cut down the Bearcat lead and came within 2. Zach Harvey had himself a career game. He was perfect on shooting with a career high of 10 points. With 2:30 to go the game was tied 60-60, this was an all too familiar feeling for Bearcat fans, especially after last game. At the end of the game, the Shockers kept fouling Jar. Cumberland, very aggressively, to the point where he was visibly hurt and in pain. The Bearcats went up by 2 with a minute left, thanks to a layup from Mika Adams-Woods. The Shockers got possession with 30 seconds left and failed to score. Jar. Cumberland was fouled on the way up and made both free throws at the line. The Shockers made a 3 with 5 seconds left, cutting UC’s lead to 1. Adams-Woods gets fouled with 3 seconds left and misses the first but made the second. Wichita throws it up on an inbound play and Jar. Cumberland gets fouled going up to get the steal. He misses the first ,but made the second also. The Shockers miss a half court heave and the Bearcats win 67-64 without going into overtime. Jar. Cumberland led the team in points with 24, Scott led in rebounds with 11, and Jae. Cumberland led in assists with four. This win gave John Brannen his 100 career win as head coach.
Cincinnati is now 18-9 overall and 11-4 in the AAC. They will not have to play until next Sunday when they will travel to Houston to play another important game.
