WICHITA, Kan. — Jeremiah Davenport registered a season-high 22 points off the bench, thanks to 6-of-9 shooting from deep, to lead Cincinnati to a 70-61 win at Wichita State on Thursday night.
Davenport had started 52-straight games for his hometown Bearcats entering the night. His previous season-high for 3-pointers was three, and it was the eighth 20-point game of his career. The 22 points also marked the most for a UC reserve since Jarron Cumberland on Jan. 29, 2017 against South Florida.
Cincinnati (11-5, 2-1 AAC) made four of its first six three-pointers, then added a fifth when Davenport connected for the second time of the night, to lead 17-11 at 12:10 and force a Wichita State timeout.
Cincinnati built a 27-16 lead into the 7:48 media timeout, with Mika Adams-Woods collecting four assists and the Bearcats starting 7-for-11 (63.6 percent) from long range. The largest lead came on Davenport’s jump-hook at 4:15 for a 33-20 lead, his 13th points off the bench.
The Bearcats led 39-22 at the half, capped off by David DeJulius’ trio of free-throws in the final second after Wichita State’s first foul of the game, marking their best defensive period of the season. UC also out-rebounded the Shockers 25-15 then after going minus-18 Sunday at Temple.
Wichita State would not quit, especially at home. Eight-straight points, including a pair of deep pull-up treys by Melvion Flanagan, pulled it from a game-high 21-point deficit to 51-38 at 13:05. Nolley ended a nearly-four minute scoring drought with a shallow jumper on his first attempt of the half, then Viktor Lakhin dropped one in after a stop to get back up 55-39 with 10:55 left.
Two more treys by Davenport opened the lead to 20 at 5:08. Wichita State scored 11-straight points over a three-minute stretch, calling timeout down 68-60 with 59.5 ticks left. After several Shocker fouls to create the bonus, Lakhin found a crease for Landers Nolley II on an in-bounds give-and-go for an easy dunk and 10-point lead.
FROM WES MILLER
“Anytime you go on the road and get a win, you enjoy it. We played real well for 34-35 minutes, and I was real proud of the way we played after Temple a few days ago. We just need to get a little better at executing down the stretch and finishing games. We didn’t take good shots then or get back on defense, which we did well the whole night. There is a lot to learn from the end of that game, but now we can get some rest and get ready for Sunday.”
UP NEXT
Cincinnati returns home to host No. 2 Houston on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.
NOTABLE
-Cincinnati is now 10-2 against the Shockers in its AAC era, while it was the Bearcats’ fourth-straight win in the series.
–Ody Oguama earned his first start of the year and second at Cincinnati. He started 42 games at Wake Forest his first two seasons. Cincinnati entered the night as one of seven teams nationally to not change its lineup.
–Mika Adams-Woods collected four assists, his 11th time out of 16 games with three or more.
–Landers Nolley II earned his first double-double as a Bearcat and the fifth of his career (12 points, 11 rebounds), with the latter a season-high and one off his career-best. It was the team’s seventh of the year.
–David DeJulius now has 901 points as a Bearcat.
COURTESY UC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
