The Bearcats traveled to Fort Worth, Texas to take on the SMU Mustangs. The Bearcats were looking to continue their season as this was a win or go home game for both teams. The Bearcats came in with a 10-10 record on the season and facing an SMU team that has not played since early February was going to lead to a very tough game and back and forth action bewteen the two squads. Mike Saunders, Jr. was back in the lineup after his ankle injury and David DeJulius opting back in gave the Bearcats another man on the squad for this contest. The starting lineup was Mike Saunders, Jr., Mika Adams-Woods, Keith Williams, Jeremiah Davenport and Chris Vogt. Would the Bearcats be able to win a huge game and force a matchup tomorrow versus the No. 1 seed Wichita State?
The Bearcats got off to a fast start in this one as it was the Jeremiah Davenport show, Davenport had a quick eight points on 3-of-3 shooting and the Bearcats jumped out to an 8-6 lead. The Bearcats would then go silent for a while after a Saunders, Jr. bucket gave them a 10-6 advantage. The Bearcats would not score for the next 5 minutes and would fall behind 15- 10 after a 9-0 run by SMU. A dunk from Tari Eason would end the drought and get the Bearcats the momentum they needed to fight back in the first half. A made three from Mika Adams-Woods would cut the lead to 2 and then back-to-back dunks from Chris Vogt would have the game nodded up 19-19 with 6:40 to go in the half. The Bearcats played solid defense in the first half as they forced multiple turnovers and the Bearcats finally were off and running after a couple of buckets from Mason Madsen and Keith Williams had them up 24-23 with 2:26 to go. The Bearcats would end the half on a 6-0 run from a Bearcat drive from Mike Saunders, Jr. and a three from Mika Adams-Woods. The Bearcats took a 30-23 lead to the half. SMU played a very tough half after being off a month, but multiple turnovers from the Bearcats defense had them in shambles in the half. The Bearcats leading scorer was Jeremiah Davenport with eight followed by Mika Adams-Woods with his couple of threes and then five from Mike Saunders, Jr. The play of Saunders, Jr. was phenomenal for the half as he forced a bunch of mistakes from SMU and had the Mustangs looking for other options. Saunders has improved greatly from the first half of the season and was looking to help the Bearcats survive another day. Would the Bearcats be able to finish this off and live to see another day?
The Bearcats opened up the second half the same way they ended the first half as they played vicious defense and had SMU with no clue what to do. The Bearcats got a dunk from Chris Vogt, then a three from Jeremiah Davenport and the Bearcats jumped up to a 36-23 lead. SMU got there the first point in over 6 minutes as a technical was called on Jeremiah Davenport, but after that, the Bearcats came right back down with a three and a Mikey Saunders, Jr. bucket. All of a sudden this game was turning into a blowout at 41-24 with 15:16 to go. The Bearcats and Mustangs would go back and forth from then though as SMU finally was able to drill a three after missing their last 10 the Bearcats still had a 47-32 lead with 11:59 to go. The Bearcats and SMU would continue their back and forth action heading into the final 10 of the half as the Bearcats and SMU exchanged 3s and were bringing pressure on the defense. Tne Bearcats were just too much for SMU though as they continued to keep their lead in double digits as they led 54-38 with 7:46 to go in the game. The Bearcats would push their lead to as many as 20 after a Davenport corner three and the Bearcats led this one 61-41 with 6:05 to go in the game. SMU would not go away in this one though as they forced a couple of turnovers in a small span and started a 6-0 run after they hit a couple of big shots to cut the lead 61-47 with 4:11 to go. SMU would battle back to cut the lead down to 10 though as they provided a full-court pressure that had Cincinnati confused and caused them issues. It was a 66-56 game with 1:32 to go in this game so by no means was this game over. The Bearcats though would be able to overcome the press and knock down their free throws to pull this one out and move on another day. The Bearcats would win this one 74-71.
The Bearcats leading scorer was Jeremiah Davenport who was hot from the corner today as he had 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field (5-of-7 from behind the arc) and the Bearcats got great play out of guard Mike Saunders, Jr. as the freshman had 12 points, caused multiple turnovers today with his active hands and quick feet. Senior guard Keith Williams contributed 14 points today even though he struggled from the line, the Bearcats were able to hang and get a big quarter-final win. The Bearcats tough defense had SMU shooting at a 36% clip and caused them to turnover the ball 20 times. SMU played a hard-fought battle as they battled all the way back after being off for so long. Unfortunately for them the Bearcats were ready to play and came out on fire in the second half.
The Bearcats will be back in Texas tomorrow as they play Wichita State in the semi-finals. This will be another win or go home and hopefully, the Bearcats will be able to prevail and move on to the finals. That game will be on ESPN2 and will be on at 3 pm.
