University of Cincinnati men's basketball coach Wes Miller found out his team's scheduled home game Saturday against Texas Southern was canceled due to COVID-19 issues within the TSU program late Friday morning, just as the Bearcats were about to take the court for a walk-through to prepare for the Tigers.
After turning the walk-through into the "best in-season practice" so far this year for UC, Miller and his staff went to Taste of Belgium in Clifton to figure out who they could play on such short notice.
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Ashland University, a Division II school about 180 miles away in Northeast Ohio. was up for the challenge.
David DeJulius scored a game-high 24 points, Jeremiah Davenport added 22 points and Cincinnati defeated the Eagles 71-57 Saturday at Fifth Third Arena.
"They're a pretty good basketball team," Miller said. "Let's give credit to them. They're well-coached. They run their stuff. They're disciplined. They're in good position defensively. But our fans don't pay for tickets to watch us play Division II games. So with a circumstance like this, an extenuating circumstance, for them to still come show up and support us, man, it just blows me away."
The Bearcats improved to 9-3 on the season, including 8-1 when Davenport scores in double figures.
"Jeremiah shot the ball well," Miller said. "We're trying to figure out ways to get him more engaged in the offense and put him in better positions to take advantage of his offensive weapons."
With the score tied at 16 apiece just inside the 7:00 mark of the first half, Mike Saunders Jr. sped through the Ashland defense for a layup and followed with a 3-pointer on the next Cincinnati possession. The sophomore guard's personal 5-0 run jump-started an 11-0 spurt for the Bearcats.
Cincinnati took a 34-21 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Eagles (5-4) owned a 12-6 advantage in points in the paint in the first half. DeJulius scored eight of his points before the break.
"This is just kind of one of our mottos," DeJulius said. "As (Miller) said, 'Are we going to be parking lot guys?' That's guys that will just go wherever. We'll play against whoever no matter the circumstance. Today was just a test for us to battle through adversity, because we planned on playing another team then we switched to a really good team in Ashland. So we kind of had to shift our focus. It was just a testament to our resilience and ability to adapt."
The 6-foot senior guard would up shooting 9-for-14 from the field, including two made 3-pointers.
The Bearcats led by as many as 25 (58-33) with 11:46 to play before Ashland cut it to 10 with a minute left.
UC sophomore guard Mason Madsen missed his second straight game with a hip injury.
Up next: Cincinnati has one more game before opening American Athletic Conference play Dec. 28 at No. 14 Houston. The Bearcats are scheduled to host Tennessee Tech, featuring former UC forward Mamoudou Diarra, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
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