TicketsCINCINNATI – The Cincinnati men's basketball team fell to No. 10 Iowa State, 68-59, on Tuesday at Fifth Third Arena.
Wing Dan Skillings Jr. scored 13 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to record the third double-double his career, while guard Simas Lukosius scored 15 points and freshman Jizzle James added 16 and drilled a career-best four 3-pointers. Cincinnati dropped to 15-9 overall and 4-7 in the Big 12.
Iowa State improved to 19-5 overall and 8-3 in the Big 12 behind guards Curtis Jones (15 points), Tamin Lipsey (13) and Keshon Gilbert (12). The Cyclones scored 26 points on the 25 turnovers they forced.
The Cyclones took advantage of an uncharacteristic 14 first-half turnovers from UC and used an 11-0 run over the final four minutes of the first half to grab a 34-26 lead at halftime.
After a pair of Lukosius free throws gave Cincinnati its first lead 24-23 at the 4:19 mark, Gilbert zipped into the lane for back-to-back layups to ignite the run. A 3-pointer by Curtis Jones and a layup from Hason Ward extended Iowa State's lead to 10 with 52 seconds remaining before the break.
Point guard Day Day Thomas made a layup with 34 seconds left in the first half to stop the run, but the Cyclones took the momentum into halftime and kept firing after the break.
Two turnovers from the Bearcats in the first 90 seconds of the second half and a 3-pointer by Gilbert lifted Iowa State to a 41-26 lead and forced the Bearcats to call a timeout.
A corner 3 by Skillings and a three-point play from guard C.J. Fredrick Jr. brought UC within 10 with 13 minutes left. Another 3 from Skillings kept the Bearcats' within 10, 57-47 with 7:38 to play.
FROM WES MILLER
"First off, just congrats to Iowa State's team. Defensively, they have a big-time reputation and it was obvious that they're a terrific defensive team and I always give credit there first. They did the things to come in and win on the road and make it very difficult for us. It's obvious to point at the turnovers and that was obviously a massive factor if not the biggest factor in the game. You guys are aware of that, I'm aware of that, our team is aware of that. The fact of the matter is we can sit here and talk about the kids that are playing, but I think the onus has to go to me. We got to have our team more ready. We got to have our team more prepared. We come out there and turn it over 25 times. We got to, I got to do a better job. Our staffs got to do a better job. We got really good players, I believe in them. So to turn it over 25 times, we got to do better as coaches.
"Their ball pressure is significant. What they do is they pressure the ball and you make you put your head down and you drive into difficult places. Again, we must do a better job of getting our team more prepared for that. We tried to simulate that in practice and didn't do a good enough job again, we must look in the mirror as coaches and not point fingers. We have great kids, and I believe in staying with them. We're going to figure it out. This team is going to figure it out. I believe that I thought we kind of managed defensively a little bit even though we had a couple of defensive breakdowns. It just got away from us there and then I thought our guys showed fight to keep climbing back into it. I expect that that's the standard that we've set here for ourselves. So I'm not gonna sit here and celebrate that but I think it's worth recognizing.
CJ FREDRICK JR.
"In this league, every game has an opportunity and we've got seven games left. It's like Coach says all the time, it's this program and what we stand for. It's responding, working hard, and that's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to stay together and we're going to get ready for Central Florida and to try to take advantage of these opportunities."
UP NEXT
Cincinnati travels to Orlando, Fla., to face UCF at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Wing Dan Skillings Jr. scored 13 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to record the third double-double his career, while guard Simas Lukosius scored 15 points and freshman Jizzle James added 16 and drilled a career-best four 3-pointers. Cincinnati dropped to 15-9 overall and 4-7 in the Big 12.
Iowa State improved to 19-5 overall and 8-3 in the Big 12 behind guards Curtis Jones (15 points), Tamin Lipsey (13) and Keshon Gilbert (12). The Cyclones scored 26 points on the 25 turnovers they forced.
The Cyclones took advantage of an uncharacteristic 14 first-half turnovers from UC and used an 11-0 run over the final four minutes of the first half to grab a 34-26 lead at halftime.
After a pair of Lukosius free throws gave Cincinnati its first lead 24-23 at the 4:19 mark, Gilbert zipped into the lane for back-to-back layups to ignite the run. A 3-pointer by Curtis Jones and a layup from Hason Ward extended Iowa State's lead to 10 with 52 seconds remaining before the break.
Point guard Day Day Thomas made a layup with 34 seconds left in the first half to stop the run, but the Cyclones took the momentum into halftime and kept firing after the break.
Two turnovers from the Bearcats in the first 90 seconds of the second half and a 3-pointer by Gilbert lifted Iowa State to a 41-26 lead and forced the Bearcats to call a timeout.
A corner 3 by Skillings and a three-point play from guard C.J. Fredrick Jr. brought UC within 10 with 13 minutes left. Another 3 from Skillings kept the Bearcats' within 10, 57-47 with 7:38 to play.
FROM WES MILLER
"First off, just congrats to Iowa State's team. Defensively, they have a big-time reputation and it was obvious that they're a terrific defensive team and I always give credit there first. They did the things to come in and win on the road and make it very difficult for us. It's obvious to point at the turnovers and that was obviously a massive factor if not the biggest factor in the game. You guys are aware of that, I'm aware of that, our team is aware of that. The fact of the matter is we can sit here and talk about the kids that are playing, but I think the onus has to go to me. We got to have our team more ready. We got to have our team more prepared. We come out there and turn it over 25 times. We got to, I got to do a better job. Our staffs got to do a better job. We got really good players, I believe in them. So to turn it over 25 times, we got to do better as coaches.
"Their ball pressure is significant. What they do is they pressure the ball and you make you put your head down and you drive into difficult places. Again, we must do a better job of getting our team more prepared for that. We tried to simulate that in practice and didn't do a good enough job again, we must look in the mirror as coaches and not point fingers. We have great kids, and I believe in staying with them. We're going to figure it out. This team is going to figure it out. I believe that I thought we kind of managed defensively a little bit even though we had a couple of defensive breakdowns. It just got away from us there and then I thought our guys showed fight to keep climbing back into it. I expect that that's the standard that we've set here for ourselves. So I'm not gonna sit here and celebrate that but I think it's worth recognizing.
CJ FREDRICK JR.
"In this league, every game has an opportunity and we've got seven games left. It's like Coach says all the time, it's this program and what we stand for. It's responding, working hard, and that's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to stay together and we're going to get ready for Central Florida and to try to take advantage of these opportunities."
UP NEXT
Cincinnati travels to Orlando, Fla., to face UCF at 4 p.m. on Saturday.