On a nice Thursday evening the Cincinnati Bearcats welcomed the Vanderbilt Commodores to Fifth Third Arena for a last second fill in game for the canceled SMU game. The starting lineup was Mike Saunders, Jr, Mika Adams-Woods, Chris Vogt, Jeremiah Davenport and Keith Williams. Would Cincinnati be able to get back on the winning side of things?
In the first half it was dual between Vanderbilt’s Scotty Pippen, Jr. and Cincinnati’s Keith Williams. They went back in forth for most of the half until Williams got saddled with two fouls, with a little over nine minutes left in the half. Williams had 12 points on 4-of-6 from the field and 2-of-3 from three. Pippen, Jr. kept it rolling the whole half scoring 23 points on 6-of-7 from the field, 5-of-5 from three and 6-of-6 from the line. He made two four point plays in the first half, showing off his big play ability. Davenport and Adams-Woods played solid in the first half keeping the home team afloat while Williams was on the bench scoring 10 and seven points respectively. Even with how well the two sophomore’s played Cincinnati found themselves down 47-35 at the half. Vogt, Williams and Tari Eason had two fouls in the first half.
In the second half Cincinnati started out 12 points down and after a quick 4-0 run by Vanderbilt pushed the lead to 16 points early in the second half. Vanderbilt would push the lead up to as much as 18 points. Just when it seemed it was about to get real bad for Cincinnati they made a run to get the lead down to 10 points, they even had the lead down to seven points after a Davenport two hand dunk. Vanderbilt pushed the lead back up to 15 after a D.J. Harvey layup. Williams made a layup and then found Mason Madsen for his first three of the night to get the lead to 10, it was followed by an Adams-Woods layup and free throw to push the lead down to 7. That was as close as Cincinnati came because they went scoreless final 3:57 of the game. It was a couple bad shots and turnovers that iced it for the home team.
Cincinnati lost 78-64, Pippen, Jr. had a career high 36 points. Williams led the way for the home team with 20 points, followed by Adams-Woods with 16 points and Davenport with 15 points. Davenport led the team in rebound with six.
Cincinnati is now 9-10 overall with ECU waiting for them on Sunday at 1 pm on ESPN+.
Note: Mike Saunders, Jr. didn’t play the second half because he hurt his ankle or foot late in the first half.
