TicketsCINCINNATI – Viktor Lakhin and Aziz Bandaogo took turns electrifying the home crowd on Wednesday night at Fifth Third Arena, as the Cincinnati men's basketball team cruised past Georgia Tech, 89-54.
It was Cincinnati's eighth-straight win over ACC teams, a streak that began in 2009 in Maui against Maryland, as well as it largest margin of victory against a power-conference team since Jan. 18, 1997 against Arkansas at home (92-57).
Lakhin entered the game 6-of-20 from behind the arc for his career, but the Russian big man had the near-sell-out crowd on its feet by making his first five 3-point attempts en route to a team-high 15 points.
Bandaogo made an instant impact in his UC debut, finishing with eight points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes. The 7-footer from Senegal subbed into the game at 17:14 mark in the first half and immediately had a block to force a shot clock violation before finishing an alley-oop for his first points as a Bearcat.
He added a baby hook a few moments later and also dove over the Georgia Tech bench to save a loose ball in one of several highlights in his first game since transferring from Utah Valley. Cincinnati announced on Monday that the NCAA had granted Bandaogo immediate eligibility after he missed the first four games.
The Bearcats improved to 5-0 for the second time in three years, while Georgia Tech dropped to 2-3.
Lakhin's third 3 of the first half put UC in front by 9 with nine minutes remaining before the break, but Georgia Tech fought back with an 8-0 run.
Cincinnati took back control behind a jumper from point guard Day Day Thomas and Lakhin's fourth 3 of the first half, to lead by 10, 40-30, with 30 seconds left before halftime.
Cincinnati came out of the break on fire, making its first six 3-point attempts of the second half and using a 23-2 run to run away with the game.
Thomas buried a triple 90 seconds into the second half to put Cincinnati in front, 47-32, and forced Georgia Tech to call timeout.
The Bearcats didn't let up after the brief break.
Bandaogo's three-point play put UC in front 51-35.
A barrage of triples from senior guard CJ Fredrick (11 points) broke the game open.
Cincinnati moved ahead by 20 on a cross-over step-back jumper from Thomas. Seconds later Fredrick pulled up on a fastbreak to splash in a 3 to give UC a 23-point lead.
Back-to-back 3s from Lakhin and Fredrick put the Bearcats up by nearly 30 – 64-35 with 13:54 left.
UC made 14 3-pointers, shooting 40% from behind the arc, and committed just six turnovers.
The Bearcats forced the Yellow Jackets into 19 turnovers, scoring 36 points off the giveaways.
FROM WES MILLER
"That was fun tonight. I told the guys in the locker room that was really fun there in the second half. I thought they did some things in the first half to just kind of stagnate the game and frustrate us a little bit. I thought we handled it well. I did. They were playing way back and way off of us. We had a scrimmage against Indiana State early in the preseason and they kind of played us like that. We struggled with it, and we addressed it after that. That's why those closed-door scrimmages are so valuable. I thought we were much more prepared even though we didn't know that's exactly how they were going to play us. We were much more prepared for how to deal with it because we had been through that once this year and dealt with it already. So, I thought we handled it pretty well. Some of those early wide-open shots don't go in and sometimes when you get guarded like that it can kind of snowball, it didn't tonight, and then all of a sudden, the lid comes off the basket. We made some shots, but I thought that run in the second half was fun."
NOTABLE
-Cincinnati had a season-low in turnovers (6).
-The Bearcats have made 10 or more threes in three of their five games.
-Simas Lukosius has 20 assists to four turnovers over his last four games, leading UC in the former for the year.
UP NEXT
Cincinnati travels to Washington D.C. to face Howard at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the first road game of the season.
It was Cincinnati's eighth-straight win over ACC teams, a streak that began in 2009 in Maui against Maryland, as well as it largest margin of victory against a power-conference team since Jan. 18, 1997 against Arkansas at home (92-57).
Lakhin entered the game 6-of-20 from behind the arc for his career, but the Russian big man had the near-sell-out crowd on its feet by making his first five 3-point attempts en route to a team-high 15 points.
Bandaogo made an instant impact in his UC debut, finishing with eight points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes. The 7-footer from Senegal subbed into the game at 17:14 mark in the first half and immediately had a block to force a shot clock violation before finishing an alley-oop for his first points as a Bearcat.
He added a baby hook a few moments later and also dove over the Georgia Tech bench to save a loose ball in one of several highlights in his first game since transferring from Utah Valley. Cincinnati announced on Monday that the NCAA had granted Bandaogo immediate eligibility after he missed the first four games.
The Bearcats improved to 5-0 for the second time in three years, while Georgia Tech dropped to 2-3.
Lakhin's third 3 of the first half put UC in front by 9 with nine minutes remaining before the break, but Georgia Tech fought back with an 8-0 run.
Cincinnati took back control behind a jumper from point guard Day Day Thomas and Lakhin's fourth 3 of the first half, to lead by 10, 40-30, with 30 seconds left before halftime.
Cincinnati came out of the break on fire, making its first six 3-point attempts of the second half and using a 23-2 run to run away with the game.
Thomas buried a triple 90 seconds into the second half to put Cincinnati in front, 47-32, and forced Georgia Tech to call timeout.
The Bearcats didn't let up after the brief break.
Bandaogo's three-point play put UC in front 51-35.
A barrage of triples from senior guard CJ Fredrick (11 points) broke the game open.
Cincinnati moved ahead by 20 on a cross-over step-back jumper from Thomas. Seconds later Fredrick pulled up on a fastbreak to splash in a 3 to give UC a 23-point lead.
Back-to-back 3s from Lakhin and Fredrick put the Bearcats up by nearly 30 – 64-35 with 13:54 left.
UC made 14 3-pointers, shooting 40% from behind the arc, and committed just six turnovers.
The Bearcats forced the Yellow Jackets into 19 turnovers, scoring 36 points off the giveaways.
FROM WES MILLER
"That was fun tonight. I told the guys in the locker room that was really fun there in the second half. I thought they did some things in the first half to just kind of stagnate the game and frustrate us a little bit. I thought we handled it well. I did. They were playing way back and way off of us. We had a scrimmage against Indiana State early in the preseason and they kind of played us like that. We struggled with it, and we addressed it after that. That's why those closed-door scrimmages are so valuable. I thought we were much more prepared even though we didn't know that's exactly how they were going to play us. We were much more prepared for how to deal with it because we had been through that once this year and dealt with it already. So, I thought we handled it pretty well. Some of those early wide-open shots don't go in and sometimes when you get guarded like that it can kind of snowball, it didn't tonight, and then all of a sudden, the lid comes off the basket. We made some shots, but I thought that run in the second half was fun."
NOTABLE
-Cincinnati had a season-low in turnovers (6).
-The Bearcats have made 10 or more threes in three of their five games.
-Simas Lukosius has 20 assists to four turnovers over his last four games, leading UC in the former for the year.
UP NEXT
Cincinnati travels to Washington D.C. to face Howard at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the first road game of the season.