The Bearcats season was on the line Saturday night, and it looked like another heartbreaking loss was looming. A 13-point lead with just under seven minutes to go had evaporated and K-State was up one with less than 15 seconds to go, but that’s when Simas Lukosius made his biggest shot of the season. A 34-foot three-pointer with 10 seconds to play lifted the Bearcats to their most important win of the season, 74-72 over the K-State Wildcats, and kept their postseason hopes alive.
It was a win that came amid some incredible adversity for the Bearcats. But a new month, the best month of the year, allowed Cincinnati to regroup, snap a three-game losing streak both overall and at home. Now with just two games remaining, there is still a lot in front of this Bearcats team. With that, here are 12 Big Things from Saturday night’s Bearcats win over K-State.
12 Big Things
1. This was a great team win for a Bearcats team facing a lot of adversity. Not only did they enter Saturday night’s game on a three-game losing streak both overall and at home, it was announced about an hour before tip-off that Dan Skillings Jr., the Bearcats leading scorer, would be out with a hip injury. And not only that, but Simas Lukosius, Jamille Reynolds and Viktor Lahkin all went down during the game. An incredible display of fight and resiliency from Wes Miller and the Bearcats Saturday night.
2. A lot contributed to the Bearcats most important win of the season, but John Newman III stands out to me. I wrote after Tuesday night’s loss at No. 1 Houston how I was worried about Newman and his lack of offensive production. On Saturday night, Newman led the Bearcats with 18 points on a solid 8-of-12 shooting.
3. Going back to Skillings not playing, maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. Because what we got to see Saturday night was Day Day Thomas and Jizzle James on the floor together for a good portion of the game. The two guards played 32 and 28 minutes respectively and combined for 24 points, nine assists and five steals.
4. Name one thing Jizzle James does on the court that doesn’t help this Bearcats team. Every time he comes in, he does so many things that have a huge impact on the Bearcats. Playing a career-high 28 minutes Saturday night, James notched 10 points for his 10th double-digit output of the season to go along with four assists, his final one to Lukosius for the game-winner, and a steal.
5. Day Day Thomas should not be forgotten even with the emergence of James. Let’s not forget he’s still the second-leading scorer on this Bearcats team and the team leader in assists and steals. Not only did he score 14 points Saturday night, but he did it going 6-of-11 from the floor including 2-of-5 from three-point range. He also had a team-high five assists and four steals.
