DALLAS, Texas — It was 64 degrees in Dallas when the Bearcats tipped it off at Moody Coliseum. Inside, the Mustang rims were ice cold. Neither squad had a stellar shooting day worthy of any TV highlight show. In the end, it came down to SMU missing a half-court heave and UC escaping with a 54-52 win.
Mika Adams-Woods and Landers Nolley II were the exceptions for the Bearcats Saturday afternoon. Both hit key shots on a day when many of the Bearcats struggled finding the basket. Both finished with 16 points with Nolley achieving his third American Athletic Conference double-double by pulling down 12 rebounds.
They combined to go 13-for-24 from the field while the rest of the squad was just 9-of-41. UC did outshoot SMU 33.8% to 31.9%.
On the glass, UC was dominant. On top of Nolley's 12 rebounds, Viktor Lakhin and Ody Oguama had 10 rebounds each. UC outrebounded the Mustangs 52-41. They're now 11-1 when beating a foe on the boards. Lakhin was dominant swatting basketballs away, finishing with eight blocks. The eighth stopped SMU from possibly tying the game.
Zach Nutall scored 13 points to lead SMU, while top scorer Zhuric Phelps was held to 11.
UC improves to 13-6 and 4-2 in the American Athletic Conference while SMU drops to 6-12 and 1-4 in the league. They were coming off recent losses at Houston and UCF where they scored just 53 points. Their 52 Saturday was a season-low.
At the first media timeout, SMU was shooting 14% and UC 11% and it was 2-2. UC's second bucket didn't come until the game was nearly six minutes old.
Nine minutes into the game, Mika Adams-Woods had made all three of his shots, while his teammates were a combined 1-for-13. David DeJulius didn't get into the scorebook until there was 2:38 left in the first half. He hit a 3-pointer and was fouled and made the free throw. It was UC's biggest lead of the half at 29-22. The Mustangs then scored the final five points of the stanza and trailed by two going to the locker room.
The Mustangs would take their first lead since early in the game on a Zach Nutall trey but the Bearcats answered with an 8-0 run, all while Lakhin was on the bench with three fouls.
UC extended its lead to seven again, but the Mustangs continued to answer despite an overwhelming deficit on the glass. Lakhin blocked numerous shots only to have the Bearcats not convert on the other end. Adams-Woods provided breathing room with consecutive 3-pointers only to see the Mustangs scrap back.
UC now leads the series against the Mustangs 18-6 and winning 16-of-21 of their AAC match-ups. This is UC's final visit to the Moody Coliseum for the near future.
The Bearcats are back on the road Wednesday night in Tampa against South Florida.
From Cougar to Bearcat
Before Saturday's basketball game, the Cincinnati football team announced the commitment of Washington State transfer Donovan Ollie. Ollie is 6-foot-3, 212 pounds, and is from Texas. He was the No. 3 receiver for the Cougars this past season with 43 catches for 491 yards and three scores. He started in 24 of 28 games for the Cougars during his career.
Back-to-back
The University of Cincinnati cheerleading squad made it back-to-back national championships Saturday taking another Division IA title in Orlando. The head coach/Director of Spirit Programs is Tabby Fagan who has led the program since 1994. She was a cheerleader for UC during their Final Four basketball run in 1992.
The Cincinnati Bearcat mascot also took gold at the event.
CINCINNATI 29 25 54
SMU 27 25 52
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