The Cincinnati Bearcats welcomed the Tulsa Golden Hurricane to Fifth Third Arena On Wednesday. The women’s team were 2-5 (1-2 AAC) coming into today’s contest.
The Tulsa Golden Hurricane came out fast and got to a quick lead early on starting with a quick 12 point scoring run to start the game. The Bearcats shot 3-of-14 from the field in the first quarter for 21%. Tulsa’s Wyvette Mayberry shot 4-of-5 with 10 points in the first quarter. Bearcats forced a nice run to end the half cutting the deficit to as low as seven at one point before The Golden Hurricane answered with a three at the buzzer for halftime. The Bearcats trailed 33-25 at the half.
The Golden Hurricane gave the Bearcats some trouble today. The Golden Hurricane were pushing the tempo and hot from the start. Tulsa was shooting the ball very well from deep as well to start the 2nd half they hit three straight threes’ to extend their lead. They had a answer for just about everything the Bearcats threw at them. Bearcats had a nice run to cut the deficit to as low as seven and then Tulsa shot back with quick buckets. The Bearcats fell just short 62-57. They started off very slow, they picked it up as the game went down, but just couldn’t convert when it came down to it. This team showed a lot of heart and compassion as they rallied back from as big as a 14 point deficit early on. The Bearcats were without guards Addaya Moore and Milan Schimmel due to injuries. The home team had a hard time finding a rhythm offensively just shooting 37% in today’s contest. The Golden Hurricane freshman guard Wyvette Mayberry was their leading scorer and finished with 20 points, on 8-of-18 shooting from the floor and 4-of-9 from three.
Ilmar’i Thomas continues to show why she was the preseason Co-Player of the Year as she logged another 24 point game for her 8th consecutive game of 20+ points to start the season. Thomas went 9-of-19 from the field finishing with 24 points, 12 rebounds and four assists which is good for another double double as well. The forward was getting a lot of different looks today as Tulsa seemed to throw a lot of double and triple teams on Thomas every time she touched the ball inside. The Bearcats had three players all finish with eight points as well and those three players were the following freshman guard Jillian Hayes, redshirt senior Arame Niang, sophomore guard Jada Scott.
The Bearcats will welcome Tulane to Fifth Third Arena this Saturday January 9th at 2pm on ESPN+ as they look to bounce back in conference play!
