On Tuesday night the Cincinnati Bearcats traveled down to Houston, Texas to face AAC top dog No. 14 Houston Cougars to see if they could beat the Cougars for the first time in two years. They got a shot in the arm with the return of forward Viktor Lakhin. Would the Bearcats be able to pull off the upset?
Cincinnati was able to keep distance early and even had the lead multiple times as they shot 5-of-11 from three. Mike Saunders had a great first have scoring seven points, as well as Lakhin who gave the Bearcats great minutes and also scoring four points. David DeJulius did what he does by scoring seven points and leaving his imprint on the game. Houston was led by Fabian White who scored 22 points in the first meeting, he scored 20 points in the first half. Cincinnati ended up being down at the half 38-34 as Taze Moore hit a 3 at the buzzer to cap off his 10 point half.
In the second half Houston pushed the led up to 17 points, but Cincinnati kept fighting. After a couple of no calls on Davenport jumpers Wes Miller got his first technical as a Bearcats coach. That led to a John Newman poster that gave the Bearcats some life. They had a few opportunities to get the lead under 10, but Houston kept grinding and put the game away. Cincinnati lost 71-53 to move to 17-13 overall and 7-10 in the AAC. The win over the Bearcats locked up the AAC for the Cougars as they are 25-4 and 14-2 in the AAC.
Cincinnati got strong games from Newman and Saunders. Newman had 11 points, seven rebounds, two assists and a steal. Saunders had a team high 14 points. Houston dominated the glass 41-28 and won the turnover battle 15-12.
Cincinnati will stay in Texas, heading to face SMU on Thursday.
