By Cord Rankin
ATLANTA — Cincinnati led 45-29 at the half, Dillon Mitchell recorded his first double-double of the season and the No. 18 Bearcats defeated Georgia Tech, 81-58, on Saturday afternoon.
The victory gave Cincinnati nine in a row against the ACC, a streak that began against Maryland in the 2009 Maui Invitational. UC defeated Georgia Tech at home, 89-54, the night before Thanksgiving last year. The Bearcats are also 5-0 for the third time in four years.
Cincinnati led 12-4 at the 15:37 media timeout thanks to a pair of Connor Hickman layups and two Aziz Bandaogo free-throws after the break.
The Bearcats took a 29-17 lead, their largest at that point, on three-straight alley-oops from Jizzle James to Mitchell. It became a 10-0 run over 2:39 when Tyler Betsey drilled a trey from the wing at 4:21, assisted by Hickman, to make it 33-17.
Cincinnati missed its first six shots of the second half, but offensive rebounding and a nifty inbounds steal by Bandaogo kept it ahead 46-32 before Hickman swished a triple at 16:38.
Day Day Thomas, playing in his second game since his preseason injury, kept UC ahead 69-50 at 7:02 as James assisted him on a triple.
Mitchell’s first-career 3-pointer made it a 66-46 lead at 8:27, UC’s largest of the night.
The weekend was filled with strong homecoming vibes for several in the program, complete with a strong Bearcat contingent in the stands. Atlanta native and associate head coach Chad Dollar coached at Georgia and Georgia Tech, assistant Andre Morgan played at Buford High School, Kennesaw State and North Georgia, junior Josh Reed came from Pace Academy and sophomore Arrinten Page played at Wheeler High School.
FROM WES MILLER
“Any time you get a road win over a quality, Power 4 team, you’re gonna feel good about it … I was pleased with our effort. You look down, and our depth was effective tonight. Arrinten Page, who’s an Atlanta native and fouls out in seven minutes, that put a little pressure on us, but our guys stepped up. Dillon slid down and played the small-ball five to give a good run for us. To have one of our key players being in foul trouble and not miss a beat, I like that. Jizzle James is so good and gets better and better because he competes his butt off every day. He goes 0-for-5 from deep, and we score 81 despite that as he’s a good shooter, there’s a lot of good stuff.”
FROM DILLON MITCHELL
“Us playing fast is something we want to do. When I was being recruited here, that was something Coach Miller wanted to do. There could be games where we’re not making shots or something is off, but one thing is we’re gonna push the ball, play hard and play fast. That’s something he preaches. We’ll be in shape and get rebounds.”
“(With the alley-oops) That’s the point guard Jizzle is. He gets everyone going before he looks after himself. That’s the way he has been since I’ve watched him in high school.”
NOTABLE
–Dillon Mitchell reached double-figure scoring for the fifth-straight game to open the season. He had eight double-doubles last year at Texas and one as a freshman in 2022-23.
–Connor Hickman scored a season-high 14 points and now has 996 points in his career.
-Cincinnati has had at least four double-digit scorers in all 5 games this season.
–Jizzle James had seven assists, the third time in five games he’s had six or more.
–Tyler Betsey is 9-for-16 from deep to start his career (56.3 percent).
UP NEXT
Cincinnati hosts Alabama State at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night.
COURTESY UC SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS
