Bearcats grind out 72-55 win versus Mount St. Mary's

The Cincinnati Bearcats invited the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers to Fifth Third Arena for a Sunday evening game. Mount St. Mary’s were without Anthony Arrington, Jaxon Hartman, Abdou Khadre Kebe and Justin May. 

The Bearcats come into the game 3-0 could they move to 4-0?

Overall this wasn’t a normal crowd for Fifth Third Arena as it looked roughly around 8,000 in the building. During the first half Mount St. Mary’s didn’t back down and had the lead up to as many as 9 late in the first half. Hot shooting from Xavier Lipscomb was a key reason the Bearcats were down at the half going 5-of-6 from the field and 3-of-4 from the 3 for 13 points and six rebounds. The Bearcats shot 30.3% from the field and 22.2% from 3 and were out-rebounded 21-20. Freshman guard Keyshaun Tillery is having his best game as a Bearcats with eight points (3-of-6 from the field and 2-of-3 from 3) and three rebounds.

The Bearcats are controlling turnovers, but so far they are forcing bad shots and Mount St. Mary’s are making them pay shooting 43.6% from 3.

In the second half the Bearcats took a 1 point lead, but then allowed Mount St. Mary’s to push the lead back to 6. Moustapha Thiam and Halvin Dzellat’s energy on the boards allowed for the Cats to crawl back into the game Thiam with five and Dzellat with three with 11:49 left in the half. Tillery got a steal and fouled, he ended up hitting one of the two free throws and it was followed by a Shon Abaev dunk to put the Bearcats up 2. Day Day Thomas went on a personal 6-0 run to get the lead to 8 with 7:35 left in the second half (58-50). The Bearcats defense turned the corner as it started getting a ton of turnovers allowing them to push the lead up to 14 with 3:34 left in the game. Ending the game on a 20-5 run sealed it for the Bearcats. 

They held Lipscomb to just one point in the second half, he only finished with 14 points. Thomas led the way with 16 points, five rebounds and five assists. Baba Miller had another double double with 13 points and 11 rebounds as well as four blocks. Thiam had a double double as well with 13 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks. 

The Bearcats won 72-55 and will now face Louisville at Heritage Bank on Friday at 6:30 pm.