Bearcats fall to No. 6 Houston in AAC clash

First-year University of Cincinnati men's basketball coach Wes Miller got a good look Sunday at just how far he has to go before his Bearcats are back among the elites in college basketball.

David DeJulius scored a game-high 25 points in a losing effort, as Cincinnati fell to No. 6 Houston 80-58 at Fifth Third Arena.

"That's the sixth-ranked team in the country," Miller said. "They went to the Final Four last year. I've been around college basketball now, I don't know, I haven't counted the years, but it feels like for a really long time. I've been around really good basketball programs. That's a really good basketball program.

"Like you have good teams. That's a really good basketball program because there's a certain level of play every single year, year after year. ... That's the standard, right? Now, we've got to figure out how to match that for 40 minutes."

DeJulius was the only double-digit scorer for the Bearcats (15-7, 5-4 American Athletic Conference), who suffered a sizeable setback in their hopeful fight toward a NCAA Tournament berth.

The 58 points tied a season-low for Cincinnati, which lost its fourth straight to the Cougars dating back to the 2019-20 season.

"We got our butts kicked tonight," Miller said. "It doesn't feel good. I'm extremely pissed off."

The Bearcats lost two games to Houston last season by a combined 75 points, including a 91-54 defeat in the AAC tournament championship game.

The Cougars (20-2, 9-0), led by Fabian White Jr.'s 22 points and nine rebounds, owned Cincinnati inside. Houston ended the night with a 38-18 scoring advantage in the paint and a 38-26 edge in total rebounds.

Houston 6-foot-10 big man Josh Carlton won the opening tip and batted the ball to teammate Taze Moore who sprinted ahead of the Cincinnati defense for a dunk only four seconds into the game.

The Cougars opened up a 9-1 lead before Miller called a 30-second timeout at the 16:47 mark to stop the bleeding. The Bearcats' lone point came on a free throw by John Newman III.

With Bengals running back Joe Mixon seated courtside, Cincinnati started 1-for-8 from the field, and Houston opened up a 20-3 lead six minutes into the game.

The Cougars led 40-19 with four minutes to play in the first half, and then the Bearcats woke up.

Cincinnati closed the half on a 12-2 run to pull within 42-31 at intermission. DeJulius scored seven of his game-high 18 first-half points during the spurt.

"To finish the first half, we kind of kicked it into gear defensively a little bit," Miller said. "We started getting our hands on balls and that got us out running a little bit. We got a couple easy baskets. It helps when shots fall, but that was our best defensive segment of the game, and on the contrary, the best offensive segment of the game. So it kind of worked on both ends for us."

Jeremiah Davenport opened the second half with a 3-pointer to make it an eight-point game, but that was as close as the Bearcats would come.

Davenport finished with nine points on 3-of-12 shooting, four rebounds, two turnovers and a steal.

Cincinnati's offensive woes continued, as UC shot just 34% (18-for-53) from the field and 20% (4-for-20) from behind the arc.

"I don't get into the streaks and slumps and all that kind of stuff. It's just one day at a time, one possession at a time," Miller said. "It sounds cliché, it sounds like coach talk, but that's the way that I challenge myself every day and I challenge our team every day."