The Bearcats, however, just couldn’t contain Corey Walker Jr., as it seemed like he was just getting anything he wanted here this evening as Viktor Lakhin’s rim presence was truly missed. The Bearcats would turn it on and open things up after five straight field goals gave them a 74-56 lead with just under five minutes remaining. Whatever adjustments were made at halftime they worked here tonight after the Bearcats threw up a fifty piece here in the second half.
The Bearcats would defeat the Bulls 84-65 behind a huge second half where they scored 50 points to blow the roof off here at Fifth Third Arena for Nati Jam. The Bearcats were led by Ody Oguama who finished with a career high 18 points, as the senior big man stepped up for the injured Lakhin. Jeremiah Davenport caught fire in the second half where he scored 13 of his 18 points to help spark the Bearcats momentum after a slow first half. Landers Nolley really stepped it up on the defensive end tonight as he finished with another double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
From Wes Miller
“I am very pleased with the second half, like I told the guys in the locker room, you feel like you are playing your best basketball you’ve played all year in the last couple weeks, but within a matter of minutes on Wednesday Rob Phinisee and Viktor Lakhin go down with an injury, that’s very tough on a team. Our team feels it too, it’s frustrating, tough, and we talk about this a lot as a group. It’s not about what happens, It’s about how we respond to what happens, I thought we responded very well in the second half tonight. I am proud of that, and I think that says a lot about our leadership in the locker room, and I think about David DeJulius first when I think about the leadership. I’m very proud of him and I thought he did a lot of nice things to try and get us going defensively, and bring that grit and energy tonight, and it might not show up in the stat sheet, and be the most sexy thing to talk about but, he sat down and really defended some possessions tonight and it makes the rest of the team want to sit down and defend as well, so I was proud of him. Jeremiah played some of his best basketball there in the second half and that gave us a huge lift,” said Miller.
The Bearcats now improve to (17-9, 8-5 AAC) on the season as they look to turn the page when they head to Greenville, North Carolina to take on East Carolina University this Wednesday at 7 pm.
