Tonight the Bearcats welcomed Florida A&M to Fifth Third Arena, as they were looking to bounce back from a tough 83-62 loss to Crosstown Rival Xavier over the weekend. The Bearcats come in at 7-3 on the season, while the Rattlers are 2-6 on the season, but don’t let the record fool you, they are a very tall and physical team, and will be a great challenge for the Bearcats.
Some big news ahead of tonight’s contest was that the Bearcats would be without one of their most efficient shooters, in Mason Madsen, as he was not suited up for tonight’s contest, we will have more on that following the game hopefully.
The Bearcats were sticking to the same Starting 5, as they have all season with, John Newman, David DeJulius, Abdul Ado, Jeremiah Davenport and Mika Adams-Woods for tonight’s matchup with Florida A&M.
The Rattlers strike first after a jumper made by forward D.J Jones, to give the Rattlers an early 2-0 lead over the Bearcats. The Rattlers jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead before the Bearcats pushed the tempo finding Ody Oguama drawing a foul in the paint, where he eventually knocked down both free throws. The Bearcats, followed with a great defense stop by John Newman to create the Rattlers turnover, which resulted in a 3 from Mika Adams-Woods. The Bearcats really started to push the tempo early, but Florida A&M responded right back as D.J Jones had 7 of the Rattlers first 10 points. Mike Saunders had a quick 5 point run following the under 16 media timeout to give the Bearcats a 13-12 lead. The Bearcats had a quick nine points from Mike Saunders, Jr., before he exited the game after appearing to roll his ankle on a defensive stop, Saunders However, returned just 30 seconds later after the timeout to play the rest of the game.
The Bearcats changed the whole tempo of the game as Saunders was really
pushing the pace for the Bearcats, as they were looking to get out early in
transition, as they took an early 22-12 lead over the Rattlers at the halfway point in the first half. The Rattler s weren’t going away as they outscored the Bearcats 7-2 to cut the Bearcats lead to 5, as they trailed 24-19 at the under 8 media timeout, as guard M.J Randolph started finding his shoots for the Rattlers, running off a quick 10 points, after D.J. Jones, scored 7 of the first 10 Rattler points. The Bearcats turned it up a notch after a great change of momentum following a huge dunk from Ody Ogauma sparked some energy for the Bearcats. The Bearcats held a 34-22 lead at halftime, as they showed a lot of different lineups in the first half, but the big key to the first half was the Bearcats were dominating the glass, out-rebounded the Rattlers 22-18, as well as scoring 19 bench points, compared to 0 scored by the Rattlers.
The Bearcats were off to a quick start in the second half, as Jeremiah Davenport started to find his shots, as he scored a quick 5 points to open up the Bearcats lead to 16. The Rattlers were forced to go with a different strategy after forward D.J. Jones picked up his fourth foul with 17 minutes left in the second half, after a great start for Jones, the Bearcats found a way to really take him out of the game after establishing the ball inside to guys like Ody Oguama, who are very physical in the paint and can really get to the rack. The Bearcats came out and dominated as they went on a 10-2 run to start the half forcing Florida A&M to call a timeout trailing 44-24 to stop the Bearcats momentum, as the Bearcats knocked down 4 of their last
5 field goals to open this one up at Fifth Third Arena. The second half was all Bearcats as the Rattlers last field goal came with 4:28 remaining in the first half, and the Bearcats were locked in on defense and it showed the first 8 minutes of the second half, as they were able to get stops and capitalize on the other end as they lead 50-26 at the under 12 media timeout. The Rattlers scored their first field goal with just under 12 minutes left in the first half, after being held scoreless for nearly 11 minutes of this game. The Bearcats were led by Jeremiah Davenport who came out shooting in the second half, scoring 12 points early as the Cincinnati native was
finding his groove here in the second half. The Bearcats dominated the second half as they were locked in on defense after holding the Rattlers without a field goal for almost 8 minutes of the second half, as the Bearcats capitalized on that aspect of the game, as they not only got stops on defense, but turned those stops into points offensively.
The Bearcats dominated the glass as they outrebounded the Rattlers, 48-33 for the game, which was a great sign, especially after being out rebounded versus Xavier over the weekend. The Bearcats held the Rattlers to just 30% from the field, and that huge 12-13 minute period without a Rattler field goal was a huge part of that.
The Bearcats saw big games from Jeremiah Davenport and Ody Oguama. Davenport started the game 1-5 in the first half, before turning it on in the second half, as he finished with 16 points, 14 of those in the second half. Oguama had a big game, after getting into some foul trouble versus Xavier, the junior big man bounced back with nine points and eight rebounds, but he was giving the Rattlers all kind of problems in the paint, drawing five fouls to get to the line six times was a stamping point early for the Bearcats. Oguama finished with nine points, tied with Mike Saunders, who got off to a very fast start, scoring nine first half points. The Bearcats saw 11 of the 13 players who played score in tonight’s 77-50 win. Bearcats’ fans also got to see a glimpse of what guard A.J. McGinnis can do as he came out in the second half firing off the bench, where he scored seven points. A great sign for the Bearcats after missing time earlier this season with an ankle sprain.
Bearcats head coach Wes Miller did give an update on Mason Madsen postgame. “Mason has been dealing with a hip injury, the plan was to shut him down for a few days, let him rest, then reevaluate. Madsen could miss time but nothing worth concerning long term,” said Miller following the Bearcats 77-50 win over Florida A&M.
The Bearcats will be back in action this Saturday when they welcome Texas
Southern (2-7) to Fifth Third Arena as the Bearcats will look to improve to 9-3 when they take on the Ashland this Saturday at 1 pm.
