TicketsCINCINNATI – Junior wing Simas Lukosius made a career-high eight 3-pointers on Wednesday night.
None was more important than the final one.
Cincinnati trailed by 2 with four seconds left in overtime when Lukosius took a hand-off from senior center Aziz Bandaogo and drilled the game-winning corner triple to lift the Bearcats to a 73-72 victory over San Francisco in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament at Fifth Third Arena.
"I see (the defenders), and they're kind of like in front of me," he said. "So, of course, I see them but at that point, it's too late to care about them. So, I just try to lock in and get the shot off."
UC, which improved to 21-14, will host Bradley on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Lukosius finished with 28 points, making 8-of-10 3-pointers, ultimately out-dueling San Francisco guard Malik Thomas, who scored 31 points and made 5-of-7 treys. Lukosius' eight threes and 80 percent shooting from deep were both sixth in school history (the latter based on minimum five makes).
The Dons finished 20-15.
Junior guard Day Day Thomas tallied a career-best eight assists.
At the end of regulation, Bandaogo missed the front-end of the 1-and-1 and San Francisco's Malik Thomas buried a 3 from the corner to tie the game 67-67 with 4.5 seconds left.
Cincinnati freshman guard Jizzle James' 3-point attempt at the buzzer came up short and the two teams went overtime.
Malik Thomas hit another 3 to open the extra frame to put the Dons in front 70-67. He made two free throws to give San Francisco a 72-68 lead at the 2:30 mark.
James' jumper with 1:45 left brought UC within 2, 72-70, in overtime, setting the table for Lukosius' game-winner.
The Bearcats and Dons traded leads throughout the first part of the second half until UC took control with a 12-0 run.
Trailing 48-45 with 12:43 left, sophomore forward Dan Skillings Jr. sparked a game-breaking 12-0 run for the Bearcats with a pull-up jumper before Lukosius swished in his fifth trey of the night and James splashed in a contested jumper.
San Francisco went more than six minutes without scoring a point as sophomore forward Josh Reed added a layup and senior center Jamille Reynolds split a pair of free throws before James hit another midrange jumper to give UC a 57-48 lead with seven minutes left.
The Dons cut their deficit to 3, with just under four minutes left, but Lukosius drilled his sixth from the corner to put Cincinnati back in from 60-54 with 3:30 remaining.
Lukosius buried another triple less than 30 seconds later to extend the Bearcats' lead to 63-54.
Holding a 67-64 lead with under one-minute left, Bandaogo took a charge with 50 seconds left before grabbing an offensive rebound and being fouled on a putback attempt with 18 seconds left. His 1-and-1 free throw attempt missed, giving Malik Thomas the opportunity to tie the game.
FROM WES MILLER
"How about Simas Lukošius? He shot the heck out of the ball tonight. He's done that consistently here for a while. He was just terrific down there on the offensive end and made another big time shot. He knows this and our team knows this, but having somebody at the end of the game that wants the ball and wants the big moments, he has come through time and time again. I'm proud of that and of this dude. He's had a tough go of it in the fall. You guys don't even know it because he's not the type to talk about it or tweet about it. He had a bunch of nagging little injuries and he's not a guy that gets hurt in his career, and he had a bunch of stuff that was hard. Then he gets hit by the car and you can't even make that up. I know he was disappointed with the way that he started conference play shooting the ball. The way he has come back here through the middle and the end of conference play and to see him do this tonight is great. He has been great, and I'm happy for him.
"I'm happy for our team that we found a way to win. I said to them that the hardest one to get is the first one. I really think that when you're playing in this event, or any of these events, that the first one is always hard. When you get through the first one, it gets to be a lot of fun. I'm glad they found a way tonight and you guys know me well enough that I am not pleased with the way that we executed down the stretch with the lead. I am not pleased that we're shooting the front end of a one and one up three when we had a chance to tell the guys that we had a foul to give and we have to get our defense set. We missed the front end and didn't have a chance to tell them that. After that, we gave up a three with a foul to give because we couldn't get our defense set. This group has been so resilient this year. They just shrugged it off, came out and found a way to win the game and I am proud of that. I'm really proud to be the coach of these guys."
None was more important than the final one.
Cincinnati trailed by 2 with four seconds left in overtime when Lukosius took a hand-off from senior center Aziz Bandaogo and drilled the game-winning corner triple to lift the Bearcats to a 73-72 victory over San Francisco in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament at Fifth Third Arena.
"I see (the defenders), and they're kind of like in front of me," he said. "So, of course, I see them but at that point, it's too late to care about them. So, I just try to lock in and get the shot off."
UC, which improved to 21-14, will host Bradley on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Lukosius finished with 28 points, making 8-of-10 3-pointers, ultimately out-dueling San Francisco guard Malik Thomas, who scored 31 points and made 5-of-7 treys. Lukosius' eight threes and 80 percent shooting from deep were both sixth in school history (the latter based on minimum five makes).
The Dons finished 20-15.
Junior guard Day Day Thomas tallied a career-best eight assists.
At the end of regulation, Bandaogo missed the front-end of the 1-and-1 and San Francisco's Malik Thomas buried a 3 from the corner to tie the game 67-67 with 4.5 seconds left.
Cincinnati freshman guard Jizzle James' 3-point attempt at the buzzer came up short and the two teams went overtime.
Malik Thomas hit another 3 to open the extra frame to put the Dons in front 70-67. He made two free throws to give San Francisco a 72-68 lead at the 2:30 mark.
James' jumper with 1:45 left brought UC within 2, 72-70, in overtime, setting the table for Lukosius' game-winner.
The Bearcats and Dons traded leads throughout the first part of the second half until UC took control with a 12-0 run.
Trailing 48-45 with 12:43 left, sophomore forward Dan Skillings Jr. sparked a game-breaking 12-0 run for the Bearcats with a pull-up jumper before Lukosius swished in his fifth trey of the night and James splashed in a contested jumper.
San Francisco went more than six minutes without scoring a point as sophomore forward Josh Reed added a layup and senior center Jamille Reynolds split a pair of free throws before James hit another midrange jumper to give UC a 57-48 lead with seven minutes left.
The Dons cut their deficit to 3, with just under four minutes left, but Lukosius drilled his sixth from the corner to put Cincinnati back in from 60-54 with 3:30 remaining.
Lukosius buried another triple less than 30 seconds later to extend the Bearcats' lead to 63-54.
Holding a 67-64 lead with under one-minute left, Bandaogo took a charge with 50 seconds left before grabbing an offensive rebound and being fouled on a putback attempt with 18 seconds left. His 1-and-1 free throw attempt missed, giving Malik Thomas the opportunity to tie the game.
FROM WES MILLER
"How about Simas Lukošius? He shot the heck out of the ball tonight. He's done that consistently here for a while. He was just terrific down there on the offensive end and made another big time shot. He knows this and our team knows this, but having somebody at the end of the game that wants the ball and wants the big moments, he has come through time and time again. I'm proud of that and of this dude. He's had a tough go of it in the fall. You guys don't even know it because he's not the type to talk about it or tweet about it. He had a bunch of nagging little injuries and he's not a guy that gets hurt in his career, and he had a bunch of stuff that was hard. Then he gets hit by the car and you can't even make that up. I know he was disappointed with the way that he started conference play shooting the ball. The way he has come back here through the middle and the end of conference play and to see him do this tonight is great. He has been great, and I'm happy for him.
"I'm happy for our team that we found a way to win. I said to them that the hardest one to get is the first one. I really think that when you're playing in this event, or any of these events, that the first one is always hard. When you get through the first one, it gets to be a lot of fun. I'm glad they found a way tonight and you guys know me well enough that I am not pleased with the way that we executed down the stretch with the lead. I am not pleased that we're shooting the front end of a one and one up three when we had a chance to tell the guys that we had a foul to give and we have to get our defense set. We missed the front end and didn't have a chance to tell them that. After that, we gave up a three with a foul to give because we couldn't get our defense set. This group has been so resilient this year. They just shrugged it off, came out and found a way to win the game and I am proud of that. I'm really proud to be the coach of these guys."