This afternoon the Bearcats (5-3) welcome in Bryant (7-1) to Fifth Third Arena for an early afternoon showdown. The Bearcats will have a tough matchup on hand as the Bulldogs are led by former Saint Peters standout Doug Edert who averages 10 points per game to start the season. However, The Bulldogs are a very guard heavy team as they come into this match up with four players averaging in double figures, led by former Memphis Tiger guard Earl Timberlake who is averaging almost 16 points and eight rebounds through his first eight games with the Bulldogs.
The Bearcats know they have will have to lock in on defense as the Bulldogs come into this one averaging almost 96 points per game while shooting nearly 50% from the field on the season. The Bearcats will have to use their height and athleticism to crash the boards early as the Bulldogs come in averaging 45 rebounds per game.
However, Bryant would be without six players for this contest due to an undisclosed illness per Jon Rothstein which is a huge blow for the Bulldogs that is 7-1 to start the season. The Bearcats on the other hand would be without 5th year guard Rob Phinissee who was out due to a foot injury. A huge blow for the Bearcats as they were already without their best defender in John Newman, now lose arguably their second best on ball defender in Phinissee due to injury.
The Bearcats would get off to a hot start behind a quick six points from Jeremiah Davenport as the Bearcats led the Bulldogs 8-5 at the under 16 media timeouts. Both The Bulldogs and Bearcats were looking to establish the three ball early as we saw 12 threes attempted in the first 6 minutes from both respected teams. Davenport would continue to rise up and get to his spots as he scored 10 of the Bearcats first 17 points as the Bearcats would lead Bryant 17-10 at the under 12 media timeout.
The Bearcats would go on a 7-0 run over the Bulldogs to take an early 22-10 lead following a quick five points from Dan Skillings who was assessed a technical foul after a made three as the former four-star freshman was looking to make an immediate impact. The Bearcats wouldn’t look back as they would hold the Bulldogs without a field goal for nearly 9 minutes as nothing would fall for the Bulldogs early. The Bearcats were shooting roughly 50% from the field as they led 36-15 over the Bulldogs with two minutes remaining in the first half.
The Bulldogs would take a quick nine point run late in the first half to cut the Bearcats lead to 16 heading to the half, as the Bearcats led 40-24 behind a huge first half from Jeremiah Davenport who had 13 early points. The Bearcats would hold Doug Edert scoreless in the first half as he shot 0-of-5 from the field. The Bearcats would lock in on defense and make it hard for the Bulldogs to get anything going offensively and not having Earl Timberlake played a huge role in that. The Bearcats finished the first half shooting nearly 52% while holding the Bulldogs to just 21% from the field.
The Bearcats would keep their foot on the gas as they extended their lead to 49-26 after DeJulius would put Doug Edert in a spin cycle enroute to an easy layup. The Bearcats would see a huge spark of momentum from Josh Reed early in the second half as he continued to make his presence known on the glass.
The Bearcats continued to dominate as Lakhin and Skillings both would notch double-doubles early in the second half as they continued to make a huge impact here at Fifth Third Arena. The Bearcats would extend their lead to as much as 30 where they lead the Bulldogs 81-51 with 5:30 remaining in the second half. Bryant would rattle off a nine-point run to cut the Bearcats led to 21 with just over 4 minutes remaining, but the Bearcats have been in the driver’s seat from the jump this afternoon.
The Bearcats would hold on to defeat Bryant 97-71 behind a dominant performance from start to finish as the Bulldogs would be without six players due to and undisclosed illness, and Doug Edert was held to just seven points on 2-of-8 shooting. However, the Bearcats would see six players score in double figures led by Viktor Lakhin who finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds notching his second double-double of the season. Fifth year guard Rob Phinissee did not play due to a left foot injury and his timetable in to be determined to this date, but freshman guard Dan Skillings would fill the void as he would record his first career double-double as he finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds. This was the first time since 2018 that two or more Bearcats recorded double doubles, the last players to achieve that feat was Trevon Scott and Nysier Brooks.
The future is bright for the Bearcats as Skillings and Reed showed why they were top 100 recruits in the class of 2022. Bearcats fans should be very excited for the future as Reed and Skillings are going to be impact players for the Bearcats here in their freshman season which is something that is very hard to do. The incoming freshman duo will play a huge role here as the Bearcats wrap up non-conference play.
The Bearcats will be back in action this Saturday when they welcome in Crosstown Rival Xavier to Fifth Third Arena at 3 pm for the annual Crosstown Shootout.
