TicketsCINCINNATI – Senior wing Landers Nolley II scored nine points in overtime, including all four of his field goal attempts, to carry the Cincinnati men's basketball team to an 88-83 victory over Temple on Wednesday at Fifth Third Arena.
The senior transfer finished with 20 points as Cincinnati moved to 19-10 overall and 10-6 in the American Athletic Conference and avenged a 70-61 loss at Temple earlier this season.
Senior guard David DeJulius added 20 points and six assists, while freshman wing Daniel Skillings Jr. scored a career-high 15 points and redshirt sophomore post Viktor Lakhin tallied 10 points in his return from a two-game absence due to injury.
The Bearcats shot 93% from the charity stripe, making 28-of-30 free throws.
Temple used a 7-0 run over the final 2:38 of regulation to tie the game 75-75 with 20 seconds left on a 3-pointer by Zach Hicks.
After Nolley's 3-point attempt was off at the buzzer, the Bearcats went to overtime for the second time this season. That was his last field goal miss of the night as he willed UC to victory by making an array of difficult shots in the extra frame.
Nolley got UC on the board first in overtime with a leaner in the lane to make the score 77-75.
He and Temple's Damian Dunn, who scored 34, traded baskets early in the extra frame.
After Dunn made a driving layup, Nolley answered with a pull-up, but Dunn made another shot to keep the game tied at 79-79.
Nolley's third bucket of the extra period put Cincinnati in front 81-79.
After Dunn missed a long 3-point attempt, senior guard Mika Adams-Woods was fouled and made both free throws to push UC's lead to 4 with 1:45 to play.
Temple responded with an alley-oop slam from Jamille Reynolds, but Nolley buried a contested jumper to keep Cincinnati in front 85-81 with 50 seconds left.
Cincinnati made 5-of-6 free throws down the stretch to earn the hard-fought win.
Cincinnati led by as many as 9 in the second half, but Temple refused to give in.
UC and Temple traded 3-pointers early in the first half and Temple opened up a six-point lead on a pull-up jumper from Jahlil White at the 10:10 mark.
Cincinnati took control of the game when DeJulius buried one of his patented step-back jumpers and then connected on five consecutive free throws. His personal 7-0 run gave UC a 24-22 lead at 7:50.
A trey from Skillings followed by a layup by the freshman put UC up 6 just 48 seconds before halftime, but Hicks connected on a 3 to make the score 37-34 at the break.
-Cincinnati's 28-for-30 (93.3 percent) free-throw percentage was its highest mark on 20-plus attempts since at least 2010-11. UC also went 29-for-32 (90.6 percent) against South Florida on Jan. 15, 2019.
-David DeJulius's seven assists extended his nation-leading streak of five-plus assists to 14 games.
-DeJulius and Landers Nolley II's 20 points gave them their eighth and ninth-such games of the season, respectively.
-Cincinnati improved to 1-1 in overtime under Wes Miller, all this season.
-UC won the boards (35-29), improving to 16-1 when doing so.
-UC's nine turnovers marked the 14th game in single-digits. DeJulius had just one over 43 minutes.
-Eighteen of UC's 19 wins have come when leading at the half.
-Dan Skillings' 15 points were a career-high for the freshman and his third game in double-figures.
Cincinnati visits Memphis on Sunday for a 2 p.m. Sunday clash that will air on ESPN2. The Bearcats close out the regular season against SMU 2 p.m. at Fifth Third Arena on March 5 (ESPN+).