Yesterday, the Bearcats kicked off the 2022-2023 season as they welcomed in the Chaminade Silverswords to Fifth Third Arena for season two under head coach Wes Miller. The Bearcats are coming off a season where they went 18-15, 7-11 AAC in year one under Wes Miller.
The Silverswords come into this one 0-2 on the season, but have played three teams that will be featured in the Maui Invitation after falling to Louisville and Ohio State last week. The Bearcats however, were looking to get back to playing that Bearcat basketball that fans are used to after failing to make the NCAA tournament since 2019.
First half takeaways– The Bearcats established their momentum early behind the play of Landers Nolley and Jeremiah Davenport as they combined for 14 of the Bearcats first 16 points. Nolley, as advertised is a pure shooter as we have discussed before, and we saw that on display in the first half where he led the Bearcats with 12 points on 5-of-6 from the field. Nolley really impacts the game in many ways, and we saw that here in the first half as the Bearcats led 54-28 at the break, but it all starts with the play of Nolley, as he can beat you many ways and it showed early in this one as he opened the floor for guys like David DeJulius, who is embracing that two role and it allowed DeJulius to get to his spots and beat the Silverswords off the dribble.
Defense- The Bearcats were really sitting down on defense as they brough the press on just about every possession with their length and size, which proved to be a huge mismatch for the Silverswords from the jump, as they created nine turnovers and outscored the Silverswords 17-3 off turnovers in the first half, as they were really utilizing their length and taking away the passing lanes early.
Viktor Lakhin- Lakhin, got the start tonight for the Bearcats and flashed early in the first half, one play in particular, a steal out of the press where he would eventually find a cutting Mika Adams-Woods in transtiion after a filthy behind the back pass that would lead to a wide open layup.
“I have been really proud of Viktor, he has been the best player in the front court over the course of the summer and preseason on both sides of the ball,” said head coach Wes Miller following the Bearcats 98-55 victory over Chaminade.
