By Cord Rankin
November 04, 2024
CINCINNATI – Sophomore point guard Jizzle James secured his first career double-double with 12 points and 10 assists to lead the No. 20 Cincinnati men’s basketball team to a 109-54 victory over Arkansas Pine Bluff on Monday to open the 2024-25 season at Fifth Third Arena.
James added seven rebounds to his stat line and became the first player since David DeJulius (12) against East Carolina on Jan. 11, 2023, to log 10 or more assists. James and Skillings are also the first two UC teammates with double-doubles since DeJulius and Landers Nolley II in that ECU contest.
Junior wing Dan Skillings Jr. secured his fifth career double-double, tallying 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Six Bearcats notched double dight scoring nights overall with junior Dillon Mitchell (10), senior Simas Lukošius (17), senior Connor Hickman (13) and fifth year Aziz Bandaogo (11) joining James and Skillings.
Cincinnati outscored Arkansas-Pine Bluff 56-28 in the paint and forced the Golden Lions into 17 turnovers.
The Bearcats shot lights out from behind the arc in the first half, shooting 63% (8-of-13) from deep.
Cincinnati closed the first half on a 14-1 run, shutting down Arkansas Pine Bluff, keeping the visitors without a field goal for the final six minutes before the break. Including the start of the second half, UC allowed only seven points over an 11-minute stretch.
James stamped the impressive first half for the Bearcats with a buzzer beating 3-pointer, giving Cincinnati a 23-point lead at the half, 55-32.
Skillings Jr. threw down an electrifying dunk to get the Fifth Third crowd going early in the midst of a Cincinnati 8-0 run, extending the lead to 18-11.
With 3:06 left in the first half, Mitchell had an erasing chase down block leading to an alley-oop jam from Bandaogo off an assist from freshman Tyler Betsey, extending the Bearcats lead to 15.
Mitchell showcased his jaw dropping athleticism with a high-flying slam five minutes into the second half, as well. He sprinted down the floor and finished a double clutch layup extending the Bearcats lead to 35.
Late in the second half, multiple Bearcats and Golden Lions hit the floor for a loose ball. James dove into the pile and found himself escaping with the ball before flying in for a layup to put Cincinnati up 44 during a 9-0 run.
FROM WES MILLER
“It’s good to get started. I’ll be clear, I was not happy in the first half. The guys wanted to play, and maybe they were just almost too excited to play, but I just didn’t think we were defending. I didn’t think we were putting the things together that we’ve been doing in practice. The guys have been really good in practice this week and most of the preseason, with the exception of the week before. I thought we’d come out and defend the way we did in the second half, in the first half, and I was pretty dang fired up about it. I wasn’t planning on getting that fired up this early, but I wasn’t pleased in the first half. I was much more pleased with the focus and effort in the second half.”
On six players in double-figures
“I think AP [Arrinten Page] was at nine points, right? So close to seven. But I think good teams are going to have a lot of guys that can put the ball in the basket, we have a lot of guys that can do that. The most important thing than the total points scored is the assisted baskets. I haven’t studied the stat sheet yet, but we had 27 assists. I think that’s more important. If people make the right decision all year and play the right way, we’ll have nights that different guys score it. You give guys a chance when all five on the floor play the right way. It wasn’t perfect by any we got a lot of guys. We had a lot of work to do, but there was some good possession sharing the ball that we can build off of.”
On Halvine Dzellat
“The whole plan with Halvine [Dzellat], was he wasn’t cleared to play, but he was cleared to practice. This is before we took him and we took him really late, and we just thought it would be really healthy to have some depth and practice, so that AP [Arrinten Page] and AZ [Aziz Bandaogo] aren’t just getting worn down because we’re deep in all these other positions. We could stay competitive, but we wouldn’t run those guys into the ground. We could develop a young player like we thought watching the tape, he was the captain of his French national team. We thought there’s a guy that we have him all year. He’s going to help us in practice, and we can develop them red shirt, kind of the old school way. When Tyler McKinley’s injury occurred, we submitted a waiver based on some information that we found out about some of his the reason he wasn’t eligible in the first place, and, it got cleared. I thought that was really good news for the depth in our front court. He’s been thrown into a very difficult situation because he got here and he and I were laughing about it in the locker room last week. When he got here, he speaks no English and I speak no French, and that’s a bad combination when you started practice already. I mean, that’s hard because I can’t help him with the French, and he can’t understand what I’m saying. It’s not the summer when there’s time and we were right in the middle of it. He’s starting to learn English. He’s starting to understand and practice a little bit better. One of the neatest things is watching Aziz coach him. Aziz will coach him in French in practice. When I’m installing something or explaining something, Aziz will be translating in his ear, which has been really cool. It’s cool to watch guys help each other on a team. That’s what it’s about. His English is getting better, and he’s understanding better, and he’s improving. And I think those first two or three weeks here were really hard again, thrown into a difficult situation, he’s getting better and better. And if he keeps improving, you know, he adds some important depth to our front court.”
NOTABLE
-It was Cincinnati’s sixth-straight season-opening win and Wes Miller‘s seventh.
–Wes Miller is now 27-2 when holding opponents to 50-59 points.
-Cincinnati is now 16-2 under Wes Miller when shooting greater than 50%.
-The last time Cincinnati had a 100-point game was against Miami (OH) on Dec. 14, 2022.
-The last time six Bearcats were in double figures was against Detroit Mercy on Nov. 11, 2023 – CJ Fredrick (14), John Newman III (13), Jizzle James (13), Dan Skillings (11), Day Day Thomas (11) and Simas Lukosius (10).
-Cincinnati native and redshirt-freshman Rayvon Griffith scored eight points in eight minutes off the bench for his UC debut.
–Halvine Dzellat made his debut as well. The freshman joined the program in September and cleared his waiver recently.
COURTESY UC SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS
