On Wednesday the Cincinnati Bearcats made their last league play basketball trip to Greenville, North Carolina to face the ECU Pirates. Cincinnati won the first meeting at Fifth Third Arena on January 11th, 83-55. Cincinnati would be without center Viktor Lakhin for the second game in a row. Kalu Ezikpe started for Lakhin for the second game in a row. Would they be able to get their 18th win of the season?
In the first half it was the Jeremiah Davenport show has he joined the 1,000 points club scoring 16 points on 5-of-5 from the field (four threes), 2-of-2 from the line and six rebounds. He was on fire making a four point play in the half. Landers Nolley made plays all over the floor with seven points, four rebounds and three assists in the first half, it allowed the Bearcats to take a 37-29 lead into the half, but all wasn’t well in Bearcatland as they were dominated on the glass by ECU 27-16. Cincinnati shot better from the field and three point line than ECU which has been huge 45.2/30.6 (field), 55.6/10.0 (three).
In the second half the Bearcats had it rolling up 16 with 9:03 left in the second half behind the great play of Nolley and David DeJulius. After the Bearcats got up by 16, the wheels fell off as ECU walking UC down led by Brandon Johnson and RJ Felton who made play after play. Cincinnati only score 9 more points after being up 62-46. ECU got what they wanted when the game got tight and UC missed a lot of clean looks, but this is another game where they couldn’t finish after getting a substantial lead on the road. ECU destroyed UC on the glass 46-27.
With the 75-71 loss, Cincinnati is now 17-10 overall and 8-6 in the AAC. Nolley and Davenport led the way with 19 points each, followed by DeJulius with 15. ECU had five players in double digits, but were led by Johnson with 16 points and Felton with 15 points.
UC will play UCF on the road on Sunday February 19th at noon on ESPNU.
