If you weren’t impressed by the University of Cincinnati men’s basketball team’s first outing under first-year head coach Wes Miller – a 22-point romp over Evansville – perhaps a victory against Tom Crean-coached Georgia would be of interest.
To be sure, Crean's Bulldogs made Miller sweat for the win but the Miller era progressed to 2-0 in the 2021-22 season nonetheless. The Bearcats hung on for a 73-68 win Saturday against the Bulldogs (1-1) at Fifth-Third Arena.
A varied UC offense saw 10 Bearcats score at least one bucket. That was just enough to outshine the Georgia duo of redshirt senior Braelen Bridges (24 points) and graduate Jailyn Ingram (13 points).
Junior UC guard Jeremiah Davenport and junior Mika Adams-Woods went for a UC-high 11 points while senior guard David DeJulius also hit double-figure scoring with 10 points on the night.
Cincinnati led by a game-high 16 points with 12:52 to play in the game but Georgia forced the hosts to grind out their win from the free-throw line in the closing seconds.
Georgia cut its deficit to three points with 23.1 seconds to play and the game was ultimately decided from the free-throw lines, but UC still outlasted Georgia.
The Bearcats' late-game struggles nearly undid a performance that saw them control the majority of the game.
UC came out slow, falling behind by nine points at 15-6 with 13:48 to play in the first half.
To that point, Bridges and graduate Ingram set the tone for the visitors with six points each in helping build up the nine-point advantage.
The period turned at that point, though, as UC started to out-grit and out-tough Georgia.
UC players dived for balls, turned Georgia over and got hot from the field. The Bearcats would go on runs of 6-0 and 17-0, taking a lead as large as 13 before going to halftime leading, 35-26.
Six different players scored during the 17-0 run, and only senior wing John Newman III had multiple buckets in that span.
The Enquirer will update this story.
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