After losing a one-possession game on Tuesday, the University of Cincinnati men's basketball team found its way onto the winning end of a one-possession game on Sunday.
David DeJulius followed his own miss and sank a layup with three seconds left, and the Bearcats squeaked by East Carolina 60-59 at Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum in Greenville, North Carolina.
More:Cincinnati stumbles in second half, loses close one at Temple to snap 3-game win streak
"I feel like I work so hard, but one of the areas I feel like I've neglected is my floaters," DeJulius said. "I've been putting extra time on that this past week. I wanted to get to my spot – because I work on it, I know I could make it – and I was able to get after the rebound.
"But none of that was possible without my teammates and coaches, and a guy like 'Shoey' (Mika Adams-Woods) stepping up to the plate and being himself, putting us in the position for me to have that moment and for us to have that moment."
Adams-Woods scored a career-high 21 points, Jeremiah Davenport added 15 and DeJulius scored 14 as the Bearcats (15-6, 5-3 American Athletic Conference) completed the regular-season sweep of the Pirates (11-9, 2-6). UC defeated ECU 79-71 on Jan. 12 at Fifth Third Arena.
Cincinnati led 51-39 with less than seven minutes to play. But Vance Jackson and Tristen Newton put the Pirates on their backs in the waning minutes.
Newton scored seven straight ECU points to pull the Pirates within 58-57 with 1:05 to play. Jackson, who torched Cincinnati for 35 points earlier this month, had a team-high 25 points and 10 rebounds.
"Man, gosh, he likes playing against the Bearcats, doesn't he?" UC coach Wes Miller said. "... I thought at times we did a great job of closing to him, making it difficult, putting him in tough situations, and I thought at times we didn't. But give him a tone of credit. He's a really good basketball player and he's presented a lot of problems for us over two games."
The senior forward, who scored 14 points in the second half, knocked down two free throws to give ECU a 59-58 lead with 25 seconds left.
After missing a layup on the ensuing possession, DeJulius gathered the offensive rebound and hit his second attempt at the rim. DeJulius then defended Newton as he missed a 3-point attempt at the buzzer. Newton finished with 14 points.
"I thought we executed really well on the last possession," Miller said. "That's exactly how we practice it: miss a 4-footer, get your own rebound, go back and make it. That's how we drew it up.
"But no, I thought we did a nice job of executing a counter to one of our favorite plays. We got David a good look, and he missed it, but he did a nice job of getting it back and made a big-time play. I know that he was kind of hanging on the one that he missed (Tuesday) at Temple, that he felt like kind of cost us an opportunity to keep the game going. So it's really good to see him have a moment. He's worked so hard on his game."
After a horrid shooting performance for the Bearcats at Temple, DeJulius opened the scoring with a straightaway 3-pointer and Cincinnati appeared to turn a corner. But East Carolina answered DeJulius' jumper with an 8-0 run.
The Pirates opened up an early 12-5 lead before the Bearcats scored seven straight, with five of them coming from Mika Adams-Woods, to tie the game at 12 apiece with 13:14 to play before halftime.
Powered by Adams-Woods, Cincinnati took a 32-26 lead into intermission. The junior guard scored 16 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field in the first half, including two made 3-pointers.
"I thought Mika did a tremendous job of carrying us offensively tonight," Miller said. "He's been due for that kind of a breakout game because he's been showing it to us in practice all year."
Davenport and DeJulius hit back-to-back 3-pointers at the start of the second half, and the Bearcats surged ahead 38-28 with 18:07 left.
East Carolina countered with an 8-0 run to pull within 38-36 at the 15:57 mark.
Cincinnati owned a 26-10 advantage in points in the paint, but the Pirates made 23 of 27 attempts from the free-throw line. The Bearcats shot 12-for-18 from the foul line.
Sunday's victory gave Miller 200 for his career as a head coach (200-141). Miller spent 10 seasons as the head coach at UNC Greensboro before taking over the Cincinnati program in April 2021.
Miller and the Bearcats will look to even up the regular-season series with Memphis on Thursday at Fifth Third Arena. Cincinnati lost to the Tigers 87-80 in Memphis on Jan. 9.
Thursday's tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
The Bearcats will wear alternate throwback uniforms that pay homage to former UC head coach Gale Catlett's teams that earned three consecutive NCAA Tournament bids in the 1970s (1975-77).
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