TicketsCINCINNATI – Balanced play in the front and backcourt pushed the No. 17 Cincinnati men's basketball team to an 86-49 victory over Nicholls on Friday night at Fifth Third Arena.
The Bearcats improved to 3-0 on the season as UC's sophomore point guard Jizzle James and senior wing Simas Lukosius tied for team-high 19 points, while Arrinten Page and Aziz Bandaogo had five and four blocks, respectively, out of the team's 14. It was a career-high for Page as well. Bandaogo has had at least three blocks in all three matchups this season.
Lukosius and James stuffed the stat sheet, as James also added six rebounds and four assists, while Lukosius added six rebounds, six assists and knocked down 5-of-7 three-point attempts.
Cincinnati never trailed in the game as they held the lead for all 40 minutes of the contest.
Four Bearcats reached double figures. The UC bench outscored Nicholls bench 28-15 as Page led the way with 11 points.
Cincinnati played stifling defense holding the Colonels to 30% (21-of-69) from the field and only allowed four 3 pointers (4-of-18). Cincinnati also crashed the glass as they outrebounded the Colonels, 46-32.
In the first half, the Bearcats smothered Nicholls on defense, holding them to 26% (9-of-34) from the field.
Lukosius tossed a lob up to Bandaogo, who flushed it down in the midst of a 7-0 scoring run, to give the bearcats a 23-12 lead with 8:35 left in the first half. A great inbounds play led to a jam by junior Dillon Mitchell off a pinpoint pass from Lukosius, putting the Bearcats up 37-22 with 2:50 left in the first half. Mitchell then showed off his speed soon after as he hustled down the floor and sent Nicholls Trae English's layup attempt off the backboard.
Over the final 3:45 of the half, the Colonels were held to 1-11 from the field and didn't register a point. A Lukosius transition trey sent Cincinnati into the half on a 7-0 run, increasing their lead to 20 points, 42-22.
Cincinnati came bolting out in the second half. A little over a minute into the first half Bandaogo blocked a shot off the backboard causing a transition opportunity for the Bearcats. James led the charge as he delivered an alley-oop pass to Mitchell who threw it down, prompting Nicholls to call a quick timeout after a fast 4-0 run to start the half for Cincinnati.
FROM WES MILLER
"First off, I want to say this. You know that Tavon Saddler played for me at UNCG. He was the head coach at Nicholls, and when I recruited him, and he was in my first recruiting class, I know we stole one. By the way, he was a really talented player, the Baltimore City Player of the Year, and then he was the Freshman of the Year in the Southern Conference. In his sophomore year, he was All-Conference...he was a great, great player. But I was the youngest Division I coach in the country when I recruited and coached him, and now he's the youngest Division I coach in the country. And coaching is so special because you get to watch kids come in, you get to build relationships with kids when they're kids, and then you get to watch them turn into young men while they're in college, and then you get to follow him. And I had one of my former players, James Dickey, he was here tonight. He walked in the office and made my day, because he wanted to be up here to see this. So I say all that because that was really special for me. And I'm really, really proud of Tevon Saddler. He's going to be a star in college basketball, and he won 20 games last year, in his first year, goes to the conference finals, and they won a big game in Northern Kentucky last night. I mean, they won at LSU last year. They almost won at Maryland last year. They have a really nice basketball team, and I'm proud of him, and after tonight, I'll be pulling like hell for him. I wasn't pulling for him going into tonight, but other than that, I'll be pulling for him so that that was really neat.
"I do think we played better tonight. I wasn't real pleased last week that there's a lot to unpack here. You guys know I'm not happy with the rebounding. They get 17 offensive rebounds. You guys know I'm not going to be happy with that. I didn't like the turnovers in the first half. I thought some of them were just so casual and forced. You know, Jizzle just loses the ball a couple times. One time he just throws it to the team with the other jersey on, for no reason. We had a couple footwork turnovers, Tyler Betsy and Dillon Mitchell. It's stuff that you can control, that we value. And so that was a little bit frustrating, but I will say I was pleased with the defensive effort to start the game. I was pleased with the defensive effort to start the second half. And there was some good stuff going on. Jizzle James is really improved, and I think that's so obvious guys. He was really, really good on defense tonight. I mean, not only did he defeat ball screens, I don't think anybody hit him with the ball screen all night. I mean, he was special, so I was pleased with that, and I could keep going down the line, but, but I thought Jizzle had a really nice night."
Miller on Simas Lukosius' hot three-point shooting to start the year
"I don't feel like he's forcing the shot at all. I can't think of one time when he forced a shot. In fact, early in the game, as he was coming off the floor for the first media timeout, I told him to shoot more. I thought he passed a couple of shots up. He had one he passed up in the corner and drove in and turned it over by trying to get a lob to Aziz [Bandaogo]. Those are the turnovers that I can live with because they are aggressive, but he is such a damn good shooter. He hasn't been forcing them, and I think he's taking the right shots. I believe you have to give credit to the other guys as well because the ball is popping around. You look down tonight and we have 18 assists. The ball is moving around, and there are a lot of other good players on the floor as well. Simas [Lukosius] is not going to shoot 80% this year, because nobody's ever done that. I want him to do that but that won't happen. He is going to have a great year, because he's a really good player, and he continues to improve."
Jizzle James on his comfort level going into the second half
"I see where I wasn't in my groove in the first half. Going to half time talking with my coaches, I had to learn from it, then come out and see the game and see where I can split the defense, and it just opened up opportunities all game. I think I played better in the second half. I can say that. So trying to get that to where I do it all game and just make it consistent."
Arrinten Page on being able to maintain a certain intensity Coach Miller brings
"I say probably just being earlier. Every time you see something that he may not like or not to our standard, he says something about it. He gets on us about it, just at the media time out and we fix it. Simple as that."
UP NEXT
The Bearcats hit the road for the first time this season to play Northern Kentucky in Truist Arena at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Bearcats improved to 3-0 on the season as UC's sophomore point guard Jizzle James and senior wing Simas Lukosius tied for team-high 19 points, while Arrinten Page and Aziz Bandaogo had five and four blocks, respectively, out of the team's 14. It was a career-high for Page as well. Bandaogo has had at least three blocks in all three matchups this season.
Lukosius and James stuffed the stat sheet, as James also added six rebounds and four assists, while Lukosius added six rebounds, six assists and knocked down 5-of-7 three-point attempts.
Cincinnati never trailed in the game as they held the lead for all 40 minutes of the contest.
Four Bearcats reached double figures. The UC bench outscored Nicholls bench 28-15 as Page led the way with 11 points.
Cincinnati played stifling defense holding the Colonels to 30% (21-of-69) from the field and only allowed four 3 pointers (4-of-18). Cincinnati also crashed the glass as they outrebounded the Colonels, 46-32.
In the first half, the Bearcats smothered Nicholls on defense, holding them to 26% (9-of-34) from the field.
Lukosius tossed a lob up to Bandaogo, who flushed it down in the midst of a 7-0 scoring run, to give the bearcats a 23-12 lead with 8:35 left in the first half. A great inbounds play led to a jam by junior Dillon Mitchell off a pinpoint pass from Lukosius, putting the Bearcats up 37-22 with 2:50 left in the first half. Mitchell then showed off his speed soon after as he hustled down the floor and sent Nicholls Trae English's layup attempt off the backboard.
Over the final 3:45 of the half, the Colonels were held to 1-11 from the field and didn't register a point. A Lukosius transition trey sent Cincinnati into the half on a 7-0 run, increasing their lead to 20 points, 42-22.
Cincinnati came bolting out in the second half. A little over a minute into the first half Bandaogo blocked a shot off the backboard causing a transition opportunity for the Bearcats. James led the charge as he delivered an alley-oop pass to Mitchell who threw it down, prompting Nicholls to call a quick timeout after a fast 4-0 run to start the half for Cincinnati.
FROM WES MILLER
"First off, I want to say this. You know that Tavon Saddler played for me at UNCG. He was the head coach at Nicholls, and when I recruited him, and he was in my first recruiting class, I know we stole one. By the way, he was a really talented player, the Baltimore City Player of the Year, and then he was the Freshman of the Year in the Southern Conference. In his sophomore year, he was All-Conference...he was a great, great player. But I was the youngest Division I coach in the country when I recruited and coached him, and now he's the youngest Division I coach in the country. And coaching is so special because you get to watch kids come in, you get to build relationships with kids when they're kids, and then you get to watch them turn into young men while they're in college, and then you get to follow him. And I had one of my former players, James Dickey, he was here tonight. He walked in the office and made my day, because he wanted to be up here to see this. So I say all that because that was really special for me. And I'm really, really proud of Tevon Saddler. He's going to be a star in college basketball, and he won 20 games last year, in his first year, goes to the conference finals, and they won a big game in Northern Kentucky last night. I mean, they won at LSU last year. They almost won at Maryland last year. They have a really nice basketball team, and I'm proud of him, and after tonight, I'll be pulling like hell for him. I wasn't pulling for him going into tonight, but other than that, I'll be pulling for him so that that was really neat.
"I do think we played better tonight. I wasn't real pleased last week that there's a lot to unpack here. You guys know I'm not happy with the rebounding. They get 17 offensive rebounds. You guys know I'm not going to be happy with that. I didn't like the turnovers in the first half. I thought some of them were just so casual and forced. You know, Jizzle just loses the ball a couple times. One time he just throws it to the team with the other jersey on, for no reason. We had a couple footwork turnovers, Tyler Betsy and Dillon Mitchell. It's stuff that you can control, that we value. And so that was a little bit frustrating, but I will say I was pleased with the defensive effort to start the game. I was pleased with the defensive effort to start the second half. And there was some good stuff going on. Jizzle James is really improved, and I think that's so obvious guys. He was really, really good on defense tonight. I mean, not only did he defeat ball screens, I don't think anybody hit him with the ball screen all night. I mean, he was special, so I was pleased with that, and I could keep going down the line, but, but I thought Jizzle had a really nice night."
Miller on Simas Lukosius' hot three-point shooting to start the year
"I don't feel like he's forcing the shot at all. I can't think of one time when he forced a shot. In fact, early in the game, as he was coming off the floor for the first media timeout, I told him to shoot more. I thought he passed a couple of shots up. He had one he passed up in the corner and drove in and turned it over by trying to get a lob to Aziz [Bandaogo]. Those are the turnovers that I can live with because they are aggressive, but he is such a damn good shooter. He hasn't been forcing them, and I think he's taking the right shots. I believe you have to give credit to the other guys as well because the ball is popping around. You look down tonight and we have 18 assists. The ball is moving around, and there are a lot of other good players on the floor as well. Simas [Lukosius] is not going to shoot 80% this year, because nobody's ever done that. I want him to do that but that won't happen. He is going to have a great year, because he's a really good player, and he continues to improve."
Jizzle James on his comfort level going into the second half
"I see where I wasn't in my groove in the first half. Going to half time talking with my coaches, I had to learn from it, then come out and see the game and see where I can split the defense, and it just opened up opportunities all game. I think I played better in the second half. I can say that. So trying to get that to where I do it all game and just make it consistent."
Arrinten Page on being able to maintain a certain intensity Coach Miller brings
"I say probably just being earlier. Every time you see something that he may not like or not to our standard, he says something about it. He gets on us about it, just at the media time out and we fix it. Simple as that."
UP NEXT
The Bearcats hit the road for the first time this season to play Northern Kentucky in Truist Arena at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.