The Cincinnati Bearcats hosted the USF Bulls on a cold snowy Wednesday night to kick off their conference play. Would they be able to put the loss to No. 12/16 Tennessee behind them? Or would they have a snowball effect coming into the AAC opener?
The Bearcats started off hot, hitting six of their first nine shots. Both teams started the game off in a race it seemed like pushing the tempo on both ends. The big key for the first half was senior guard Keith Williams only played four minutes the first half due to foul trouble again. Another big key for the first half was to get senior center Chris Vogt the ball inside, let him go to work and he did that. Vogt led the scoring for the game in the first half with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the floor. The home team shot great in the first twenty minutes (53.8% from the field, 62.5% from three and 88.9% from the line), but they allowed USF to shoot 52.8% from the field and of their 17 missed shots they got nine of the rebounds. The Bearcats got killed on the glass 18-11 in the first half and went into halftime down 43-41
The Bearcats came out in the second half flat and just couldn’t get the finish at the end. They rallied down from down 12 to come back. Williams turned it on in the second half after being in early foul trouble and playing only four minutes in the first half to finishing with 15 points, including 12 straight to bring the Bearcats back into the game. The keys to the second half was having Williams on the court most the half as he sparked the comeback making big plays offensively as well defensively. The freshman duo of Mikey Saunders, Jr. and Tari Eason saw a lot of playing time and contributed. Eason finished with 13 points including a big three to bring the Bearcats within 2 in the final stretch. Eason finished the day with 13 points, on 4-of-6 shooting, as well as 4-of-6 from the free throw line. Saunders, Jr. finished with eight points and four assists. Coach Brannen even said in the postgame when asked about Saunders, Jr. ability to get to the hole and create contact. He said, “Saunders will be one of those elite guards in this conference with his speed and ability to get to the rim.” USF seemed to have an answer for just about everything the Bearcats threw at them. The Bearcats shot 12-of-17 from the line up, which is a step up from the first four games. The Bearcats came back from a 10 point deficit with about 9 minutes to go. The comeback showed the fight this team has and what they’re capable of doing.
USF had two players with double-doubles, big man Michael Durr finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks and forward Alexis Yetna finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal. These two were the kid to the 37-29 rebound advantage USF had on Cincinnati.
Bearcats fall to 2-3 overall and 0-1 in the AAC, but they look to bounce back on the road against Georgia at 8 pm on the SEC Network, Saturday Night.
