Per GoBearcats:
Efficient shooting (52.6 percent) and dominance on the boards (42-27) powered Cincinnati to a 79-65 win at Hofstra on Saturday afternoon, advancing the Bearcats to the NIT quarterfinals.
UC, which will play at either Colorado or Utah Valley next week at a date to be announced, was playing its first road NIT game since Oklahoma in 1991. The Bearcats went to the NCAA Final Four the next season.
Cincinnati held a 22-13 lead through the under-12 timeout, including a 13-4 difference on the boards. UC started 12-for-17 from inside the arc, notching its first three-pointer on David DeJulius’ corner bucket at 5:00 that opened a 31-25 lead.
Back-to-back Hofstra treys tied it at 31 at the 3:42 media timeout, and Mika Adams-Woods hit Ody Oguama for an alley-oop on the in-bounds to regain the lead.
UC (23-12, 11-7 AAC) made three in a row from deep, after missing its first six, to lead 39-32 late in the half.
Cincinnati led 40-37 at the break and gained its largest margin at 55-45 on Adams-Woods’ halfcourt steal and finger-roll layup at 11:51. The senior’s second trey of the game at 7:47 extended UC’s advantage to 66-53.
UC never trailed after the opening minutes. Hofstra was 6-for-11 from deep in the first half but went 1-for-10 in the second.
Landers Nolley II led UC with 20 points, his 12th game with 20 or more this year. Ody Oguama notched his second double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Hofstra (25-10, 16-2 CAA) was the Colonial Athletic Association regular-season champ and had lost once at home all year prior. It opened NIT play with an overtime win at No. 1 seed Rutgers.
FROM WES MILLER
“I told our guys before the game that we are playing a teeam that went 16-2 in a mid-major conference. I spent 10 years in the Southern Conference, which is similar to the Colonial, and if you go 16-2 and win the regular season, you’re a heck of a team. That’s one heck of a basketball team. Our guys showed a lot of maturity taking them seriously. I thought we got back the last couple of days to what we’ve been about all year. I was happy as a clam that we had a great day of practice yesterday. I liked how we came out and defended in the second half. I could keep talking about our guys, but they gave great effort. Ody set a tone on the offensive and defensive glass and gave us a punch on our ball-screen defense…like Landers and David have been all year, they made plays on offense.”
NOTABLE
-Cincinnati is 21-4 when leading at the half and 20-2 when winning the boards.
-David DeJulius’ nine assists gives him 188 for the year, one behind Keith LeGree (1995-96) for third in single-season school history. He surpassed Steve Logan (2002) and Eddie Lee (1979) today.
-DeJulius surpassed Keith Williams (2017-21) for 35th all-time at UC with 1,168 points.
-UC is 11-4 when Ody Oguama gets six or more rebounds.
-Oguama (14 points, 11 rebounds) notched his second double-double of the season, with the other coming at Tulane. It marked UC’s 16th of the year, improving to 13-1 in games it occurs.
-Landers Nolley II (20 points) scored in double-figures for the 25th-straight game, a streak that began on Dec. 14.
-This was the first all-time meeting between the schools.
