By Henry Rawn

2 25 2025

GAME NOTES

https://gobearcats.com/documents/2025/2/24/2024-25_Game_Notes_vs._Baylor.pdf

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati men’s basketball team will look to stay hot following Saturday’s victory over TCU when it hosts Baylor at 7 p.m. Tuesday night, its penultimate home game of the season.

THE RUNDOWN

• Cincinnati began the TCU game with a 13-0 lead, its best streak to start a game under Wes Miller, and led by as much as 20 in the second half for a 75-63 win Saturday at noon. Cincinnati has trailed only 21:42 out of its six Big 12 wins, leading by double-digits in all, and is 14-1 when leading at the half. BYU and Xavier are its two wins when trailing.
• Dillon Mitchell recorded his fourth double-double with 12 points and tying a career-high of 13 rebounds, six on the offensive glass. He also had no turnovers in 33 minutes and went 4-for-4 at the foul line, his season-high for makes. He and Aziz Bandaogo are tied for fifth nationally with 57 dunks apiece.
• Jizzle James led the way with 18 points. Since a scoreless outing against WVU (Feb. 2) to cap the first half of league play, he is averaging 20.0 ppg on 52.3 percent shooting.
• Day Day Thomas earned his seventh start in a row, which began Feb. 2. In that span, he is averaging 13.0 ppg with six double-figure scoring games. Over his first 17 games, he was 5.0 ppg with two in double-figures. He missed the first three games following a preseason foot injury.
• James and Thomas combined for 31 shots against TCU after 35 versus West Virginia, spanning the two games without three-level scorer Simas Lukosius (11.4 ppg, 36.0% from deep).
• Josh Reed scored 13 points on only five shot attempts, including making a 3-pointer and hitting both his free-throw attempts. He is the third Bearcat this year to be perfect on five or more shots.
• In his last five games, Reed is averaging 9.6 ppg on 58.6 FG% and 53.8 from deep. All season prior, he was 34.7 and 22.7, respectively. He is also 19-for-21 at the foul line. At the start of Big 12 play, he did not play against Kansas State, appeared briefly against Arizona and played three minutes against Baylor.
• From Miller postgame of TCU: “I think what I said in the press conference after the BYU game (Feb. 8), where he really played well for the first time, was that might be the best that is the best game he’s played at Cincinnati but it won’t be the best game that he’s played at Cincinnati here real soon. I think he continues to just put put days and put games together and he’s emerged into a really, really good player.”
• Cincinnati has committed only 14 turnovers the last two games and rallied from a 2-of-7 foul line showing at WVU to go 15-for-17 against the Horned Frogs. The Bearcats last year averaged 12.0 turnovers per game (No. 202 nationally) but are 29th this year at 10.0 per contest.

SERIES HISTORY

• Baylor is 4-0 all-time, including a 68-48 defeat of UC on Jan. 7. The Bears led 35-20 difference at the break, and the Bearcats were not able to get back within single-digits.
• Dan Skillings Jr. scored 18 points for his third-straight game, including going 5-for-7 from 3-point range.
• Last year’s meetings were a 62-59 decision in Waco on Jan. 13 and a 68-56 one in the Big 12 Quarterfinals.
• Dan Skillings’ breakaway dunk gave UC a 36-29 lead with 17:13 left in the first meeting, but Baylor responded with a 13-0 spurt to lead 44-38 with 10:13 left. Cincinnati had three misses from deep in the final moments to lead or tie.
• The second matchup was a battle until the Bearcats, playing their third-straight day, fell victim to fatigue in the second half against Baylor, making its debut because of a double-bye.
• UC led 26-24 at the half, holding Baylor to 6-of-24 shooting, but the Bears made 8 of their first 12 after the break.
• Last year’s meetings were the only ones since a Cincinnati home loss in 1946.
• Bandaogo and Baylor big Josh Ojianwuna both participated in the NCAA’s Next Generation Sunday event at the 2019 Men’s Final Four (Minneapolis) for NBA Global Academy.
• Mitchell attended the prestigious Montverde Academy, as did three of Baylor’s players.

COURTESY UC SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS