The Cincinnati Bearcats traveled on the road on Friday to the West Coast to take on the Utah Utes. The Utes were perfect 3-0 on the year and the Bearcats were coming off their first loss of the year and looking to avenge it. The Bearcats were in for a tough matchup. Would the Bearcats be able to go on the road and steal one from the Utes?
The Bearcats got off to a slow start as they did not get their first basket halfway through the first quarter. The Bearcats were trailing 13-0 in this time frame and Cincinnati had to pull themselves out of an early hole. The Bearcats finally got on the board as Malea Williams was able to cut to the basket and get the driving layup to go to get some momentum back. Jillian Hayes would get a layup right after and Akira Levy would get on the board with a layup and a 3 pointer. Bearcats finally picked up some momentum but the Utes fired back every time the Bearcats did. The Bearcats trailed at the end of the first quarter by a score of 23-9.
Utah got off to an 8-0 start to start the second quarter and Cincinnati trailed 31-9. Bearcats would get a basket from Hayes to cut it back to 20. The Bearcats and Utes would go back and forth after a Clarissa Craig and 1 cut the lead to 17. Utah was just too much though as whenever the Bearcats seem to get any type of momentum it was the Utes that fired back and kept firing. The Bearcats trailed by as many as 28 with under a minute to go in the half. Taziah Jenks would hit a 3 just before the half and Cincinnati trailed at the half 44-19. The leading scorer of the half for the Bearcats was Akira Levy with five points. The Bearcats needed to get some momentum to start the second half if they wanted any chance to come back in this one.
The Bearcats and Utes had trouble scoring in the first couple of minutes to start the second half as both teams had two buckets each after the first 4 minutes of the half. Cincinnati was able to cut the lead to 21 with 4:45 to go in the half after back-to-back layups by Levy and Jenks. Utah would bounce back though to counter with a 10-2 run to end the third quarter as the Bearcats trailed 60-31 heading into the final quarter.
The final quarter started off with both teams trading baskets in the first two minutes. The score was 64-39 with 6 and a 1/2 minutes to go. That would, unfortunately, be as close as the Bearcats would get as Utah seemed just too much for the Bearcats. The Utes would extend their lead to 33 to end the game as the Bearcats just could not climb out the early whole they were in as they fell 78-45. The Bearcats had some great performances from Taziah Jenks who had a season-high 14 points and Akira Levy who had nine points with five assists and two rebounds. The Bearcats also got nine points and five rebounds from Jillian Hayes.
The Bearcats fall to 2-2 on the young season after the loss. The Bearcats will head back home to take on the Western Carolina Catamounts at Fifth Third Arena as they look to get back on the winning side of things.
