The Cincinnati Bearcats welcomed the Memphis Tigers on Tuesday night for a highly anticipated conference matchup. The Bearcats and Tigers were making up the matchup that was originally supposed to take place on February 3rd, but was canceled due to weather conditions. The Bearcats were rocking the clean throwback uniforms for this game and we’re looking to put on a show for a sold-out Fifth Third Arena. The Bearcats came in with a 16-8 record (6-5 in the American) while Memphis came in with a 14-8 record (8-4 in the American). The Bearcats got some tough news before the game as they found Abdul Ado would not suit up for this one and was out for the contest. That meant the Bearcats would have to go smaller against a very large and tough Memphis team. With Abdul Ado being declared out the Bearcats rocked a Starting Five of David DeJulius, Mika Adams-Woods, John Newman III, Jeremiah Davenport and Ody Oguama.
The Bearcats got the first basket of the game on a David DeJulius jumper, but Memphis did not let it phase them as they went on a quick 5-0 run to jump out to an early 5-2 lead. The Bearcats and Tigers would trade baskets early on which had the contest at 9-8 Memphis. Memphis would then go on a 7-0 run to pull ahead of the Bearcats 16-8. The Bearcats would get a couple of quick baskets from Hayden Koval and Mika Adams-Woods to cut the lead to 4, but Memphis was just absolutely dominating in the first half pulling ahead 23-12 halfway through the first half. Cincinnati fought back to cut it to a 7 point game but Memphis responded each and every time the Bearcats did. Memphis had a 32-18 lead with 5 minutes to go and it seemed like the Bearcats could get nothing going on offense. The Bearcats needed to figure out something to get back into this game before it got really ugly. Cincinnati trailed by its largest deficit of 17 after a layup by Josh Minott had the Memphis lead 36-19. The Bearcats finally found some momentum in the form of Jeremiah Davenport. Davenport got a huge 3 and hit a putback layup to cut the Memphis lead to 13. Memphis would get a last-minute layup to put them up 15 at the half with a score of 41-26.
Cincinnati struggled big time on both sides. Cincinnati shot 26% from the field compared to Memphis scorching 53%. The Bearcats were also 1-of-10 from behind the arc and got dominated in the pain 22-10. The Bearcats leading scorer was Jeremiah Davenport with seven points and four rebounds. The Bearcats needed to figure out something in the second half if they wanted a shot at this game. Would they be able to?
The Bearcats started off the half with a little vengeance as the Bearcats got some clutch baskets from DeJulius and Oguama. The Bearcats had the lead at 12 which fired up the sold-out Fifth Third Arena. The Bearcats fans lost it though after Mason Madsen cut the lead to 9 after a huge 3. The 3s would not stop after only hitting 1 in the entire first half Davenport would drill 1 of his own to cut the lead to 6. All of a sudden we had a ball game in Cincinnati. Memphis would get the lead back up to 12, but the Bearcats would not go away easily. The Bearcats got the offensive surge they needed. Jeremiah Davenport hit a 3 and then got a massive dunk to cut the lead back down to 7 with 11 minutes in the game. The Bearcats and Memphis kept trading baskets and Cincinnati had the 3 ball working as Davenport and Mike Saunders, Jr. knocked down a pair to cut the lead to 6. The Bearcats just didn’t have enough in them today to get back in this after being down over 15 points. The Bearcats trailed Memphis 74-64 with under 2 minutes left and the Bearcats seemed to run out of gas against a very tough Memphis team. The Bearcats fell in this one 81-74.
The Bearcats leading scorer was Jeremiah Davenport with 20 followed by David DeJulius with 11. The Bearcats fall to 16-9 on the year and 6-6 in conference play. The Bearcats tournament hopes are getting less likely as we speak. The Bearcats will hope to get back on track when they take Wichita State on Thursday in Fifth Third Arena.
