The Cincinnati Bearcats took on the Penny Hardaway coached Memphis Tigers for their Senior Day. Senior day was originally scheduled for this Thursday, but that matchup with SMU was cancelled earlier this morning. Today the Bearcats honored their five seniors which included Keith Williams, Chris Vogt, Sam Martin, Adam Cook and redshirt junior Mamoudou Diarra. Diarra is on track to graduate this spring as he redshirted so he still has a year of eligibility potentially two if he uses the extra year that the NCAA implied due to Covid-19.
The Tigers went on a 6-0 run to start the game with the lineup that consisted of all five seniors Keith Williams, Sam Martin, Adam Cook, Chris Vogt and Mamoudou Diarra. The Bearcats found their groove after that first 2 minutes as Memphis shot 1-of-7 after their first six points and the Bearcats weren’t just getting stops, but also getting points of their own to cut the early deficit. Freshman Mike Saunders, Jr. was making plays on both ends of the court early on. The freshman wasn’t scared to drive on the long length Memphis defense as he was very active on getting inside and scoring. Saunders shot 3-of-3 with 8 points before his first miss. The freshman has tremendous court vision as people are seeing why he was John Brannen’s highly touted recruits in the class of 2020. The Bearcats were finding their groove offensively behind the young group of freshman in the first half as Mason Madsen knocked down two big threes in the first half including a nice step back three that was contested very well by Memphis. The big key in the first half was Memphis attacking the boards as they out rebounded the Bearcats 29-16 in the first half. Coming into today’s matchup the Bearcats knew they’d have to be very physical on the boards as Memphis is a very big and lengthy athletic team. Memphis big man Moussa Cisse and Deandre Williams each had five rebounds for the Tigers in the first half.
The second half was all the Bearcats to start as they trailed the Tigers 36-27 to start the second half. Freshman guard Mike Saunders went on a personal 8-0 run to bring this game to life when the Bearcats trailed 40-37 at one point. The Tigers were scoring and putting pressure on the Bearcats to extend their lead to 52-44 with 11 minutes remaining. The Bearcats only offensive option the first 9 minutes of the second half seemed to be the Freshman Mike Saunders and Keith Williams as they combined for 14-19 points in that span. A couple quick buckets by Mika Adams-Woods and Jeremiah Davenport had the bearcats within 6 at 54-48. The Tigers really started to push the pace as the Bearcats started to find momentum after Landers Nolley knocked down a three as the shot clock expired the Bearcats knew they’d have to come down and get a bucket and that’s exactly what Keith Williams did when he took it coast to coast for an easy layup.
Keith Williams drove and got a bucket on Moussa Cisse’s second goal tend of the afternoon. The final six minutes seemed to be all Memphis though as they went on a run of four consecutive baskets for 10 points behind two contested three point shots from Memphis’s Boogie Ellis. This run gave the Tigers some cushion to their score, but the Bearcats weren’t giving up though as Tari Eason knocked down a quick three and layup for a quick five points of his own. The 10 point lead was quickly erased as in the final 35 seconds the Bearcats set up a trap with Mamoudou Diarra and Keith Williams to force two quick turnovers which led to five quick points behind a dunk from Diarra and a dagger three from Keith Williams. in the finals 20 seconds the Bearcats went on an 8 point run to cut the lead to 2, but unfortunately fell just short with seconds left in the game.
Overall the Bearcats knew they were going to have to be physical today as Memphis is a very tall lengthy team behind Moussa Cisse. Saunders had a career high 19 points. Williams had 19 points, six assists and five rebounds. The Bearcats are now 9-9 overall and 7-6 in the AAC after their 80-74 loss to Memphis.
