TicketsCINCINNATI – Trailing by seven with 7:46 left in the game, the No. 22-ranked Cincinnati men's basketball team fought back to secure a hard-fought 68-65 victory over rival Xavier on Saturday at Fifth Third Arena in the 92nd Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout.
Senior wing Simas Lukosius led Cincinnati with 14 points, including 11 in the second half, as the Bearcats ended a five-game losing streak in one of the greatest rivalries in college basketball.
Junior forward Dillon Mitchell finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season in his first Crosstown Shootout, while senior center Aziz Bandaogo scored 12 points on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting and junior wing Dan Skilling Jr. added 10 in his second game back from injury.
Both teams shot an identical 37.9 percent (22-of-58) from the field in a knock-down-drag-out battle that featured 10 lead changes and seven ties.
Xavier held a 53-46 lead with 7:46 left in the game when Ryan Conwell drilled a 3-pointer.
The Bearcats fought back behind Lukosius and Bandaogo.
A triple by Lukosius brought the Bearcats within a bucket, 53-51, with 5:56 remanning. After Xavier's Dayvion McKnight answered with a jumper to extend Xavier's lead, 55-51, Bandaogo's alley-oop slam made the score 55-53.
Bandaogo tied the game, 55-55, with a pair of free throws with 4:02 remaining.
Cincinnati took its first lead, 57-55, since the opening minutes of the second half when Lukosius found Skillings Jr. for a layup at 3:22 left.
After Xavier's Conwell split a pair of free throws, Lukosius knocked down a jumper to extend the UC lead to 59-56.
A Day Day Thomas steal led to an emphatic one-handed dunk by Skillings Jr. that put the Bearcats up 61-56 at the 2:27 mark.
Still, Xavier never went away.
After Skillings hustled and put back his own missed free throw to put the Bearcats in front 66-61, Conwell hit a tough 3-pointer while being fouled. He converted the four-point play, which brought the away team back within one, 66-65, with 16 seconds remaining.
Sophomore point guard Jizzle James buried two free-throws (his first two points) to put UC in front by three, 68-65, with 13 seconds left. Xavier forward Zach Freemantle had a good look from behind the arc at the buzzer but the shot bounced off the rim, giving Cincinnati its eighth victory of the season.
Cincinnati led by as many as nine in a back-and-forth first half that featured countless dunks by the Bearcats.
A 3-pointer and an and-one layup by senior guard Connor Hickman sparked a 15-3 Bearcats run midway through the first frame.
A thunderous putback dunk by sophomore forward Arrinten Page lifted Cincinnati to a 25-16 lead and forced Xavier to call timeout at 7:07.
A three-point play by Dailyn Swain jump-started a 10-1 run by Xavier, and the game became knotted at 26-26 when Marcus Foster hit a 3-pointer three minutes before halftime.
A pair of free throws from Thomas put UC in front 30-28 with 1:21 remaining before the break, but Freemantle buried a triple at the halftime buzzer to give the Musketeers a 31-30 halftime lead.
FROM WES MILLER
"First off, I want to say this man, that place tonight was just on fire. Fifth Third was electric. I loved how early people were here. It had our guys so ready to play, and it's what makes this place one of the most special places to coach and play college basketball. Keep doing it for us. Don't let it just be for the Crosstown that was awesome. I appreciate all our fans that came out tonight. I really believe this, I look down and I felt it the whole night. You shoot 37% from the field and 25% from three. We're a really good offensive team, guys. We got really good offensive players. But you go 37 and 25, we're missing layups. It just felt like there was a crazy lid on it. You find a way to win the game. That's Cincinnati basketball. Those are the best wins as a head coach. Those are the ones that I'm the most proud of in my career. When it just feels like you can't score. Whether it's a bad possession, we had a couple, there's some good possessions that we get great opportunities, and we couldn't even catch a lot of and dunk it in the second half. We're missing uncontested layups. Stuff like that was happening. It was just not our night offensively, but we still found a way to win."
Dan Skillings on the team keeping its head up despite the tough offensive night
"It felt good to get back out there with my team but for the whole team, shots weren't falling. We were getting good looks and weren't hitting them. We just trusted in our process and what we do every day, and we just kept fighting. We won that game because we fought. We didn't have the best field goal percentage and three point percentage wasn't that strong in the first half and nearly the whole game. So I'm glad we fought. We won that game because we fought, we rebounded, and we played tough and kept believing in ourselves and stayed together the entire game."
Dillon Mitchell on his first Crosstown Shootout
"This is my first year here, but I could easily say that was by far the most fun I've had in college basketball. By far that was 100% the best atmosphere I've ever been in, home or away. That was so much fun to play, and especially being new here. Everybody talks about the whole Xavier Cincinnati rivalry, but to be a part of it and then having all the fans out like that, it pushed us to a whole nother level. I think just as far as we knew shots weren't falling and we knew we were making mistakes. But digging through to the end, for the city, for us, for our brothers, that's what it was all about. Like I said before, that was the most fun I've had tonight. If we have Fifth Third like that every game, I don't see how anybody could really come in here and take a win from us."
NOTABLE
-Cincinnati leads the all-time series 52-40.
-Cincinnati is 11-1 in the last year-plus when Aziz Bandaogo scores in double-figures.
-Dillon Mitchell's other double-double this season came at Georgia Tech.
-Jizzle James' five assists marked his sixth game this year with five or more dimes.
-Dan Skillings returned to the starting lineup. He came off the bench Sunday against Howard, his first action after missing the last six due to injury.
UP NEXT
Cincinnati faces Dayton at Heritage Bank Center on Friday at 8:30 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
Senior wing Simas Lukosius led Cincinnati with 14 points, including 11 in the second half, as the Bearcats ended a five-game losing streak in one of the greatest rivalries in college basketball.
Junior forward Dillon Mitchell finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season in his first Crosstown Shootout, while senior center Aziz Bandaogo scored 12 points on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting and junior wing Dan Skilling Jr. added 10 in his second game back from injury.
Both teams shot an identical 37.9 percent (22-of-58) from the field in a knock-down-drag-out battle that featured 10 lead changes and seven ties.
Xavier held a 53-46 lead with 7:46 left in the game when Ryan Conwell drilled a 3-pointer.
The Bearcats fought back behind Lukosius and Bandaogo.
A triple by Lukosius brought the Bearcats within a bucket, 53-51, with 5:56 remanning. After Xavier's Dayvion McKnight answered with a jumper to extend Xavier's lead, 55-51, Bandaogo's alley-oop slam made the score 55-53.
Bandaogo tied the game, 55-55, with a pair of free throws with 4:02 remaining.
Cincinnati took its first lead, 57-55, since the opening minutes of the second half when Lukosius found Skillings Jr. for a layup at 3:22 left.
After Xavier's Conwell split a pair of free throws, Lukosius knocked down a jumper to extend the UC lead to 59-56.
A Day Day Thomas steal led to an emphatic one-handed dunk by Skillings Jr. that put the Bearcats up 61-56 at the 2:27 mark.
Still, Xavier never went away.
After Skillings hustled and put back his own missed free throw to put the Bearcats in front 66-61, Conwell hit a tough 3-pointer while being fouled. He converted the four-point play, which brought the away team back within one, 66-65, with 16 seconds remaining.
Sophomore point guard Jizzle James buried two free-throws (his first two points) to put UC in front by three, 68-65, with 13 seconds left. Xavier forward Zach Freemantle had a good look from behind the arc at the buzzer but the shot bounced off the rim, giving Cincinnati its eighth victory of the season.
Cincinnati led by as many as nine in a back-and-forth first half that featured countless dunks by the Bearcats.
A 3-pointer and an and-one layup by senior guard Connor Hickman sparked a 15-3 Bearcats run midway through the first frame.
A thunderous putback dunk by sophomore forward Arrinten Page lifted Cincinnati to a 25-16 lead and forced Xavier to call timeout at 7:07.
A three-point play by Dailyn Swain jump-started a 10-1 run by Xavier, and the game became knotted at 26-26 when Marcus Foster hit a 3-pointer three minutes before halftime.
A pair of free throws from Thomas put UC in front 30-28 with 1:21 remaining before the break, but Freemantle buried a triple at the halftime buzzer to give the Musketeers a 31-30 halftime lead.
FROM WES MILLER
"First off, I want to say this man, that place tonight was just on fire. Fifth Third was electric. I loved how early people were here. It had our guys so ready to play, and it's what makes this place one of the most special places to coach and play college basketball. Keep doing it for us. Don't let it just be for the Crosstown that was awesome. I appreciate all our fans that came out tonight. I really believe this, I look down and I felt it the whole night. You shoot 37% from the field and 25% from three. We're a really good offensive team, guys. We got really good offensive players. But you go 37 and 25, we're missing layups. It just felt like there was a crazy lid on it. You find a way to win the game. That's Cincinnati basketball. Those are the best wins as a head coach. Those are the ones that I'm the most proud of in my career. When it just feels like you can't score. Whether it's a bad possession, we had a couple, there's some good possessions that we get great opportunities, and we couldn't even catch a lot of and dunk it in the second half. We're missing uncontested layups. Stuff like that was happening. It was just not our night offensively, but we still found a way to win."
Dan Skillings on the team keeping its head up despite the tough offensive night
"It felt good to get back out there with my team but for the whole team, shots weren't falling. We were getting good looks and weren't hitting them. We just trusted in our process and what we do every day, and we just kept fighting. We won that game because we fought. We didn't have the best field goal percentage and three point percentage wasn't that strong in the first half and nearly the whole game. So I'm glad we fought. We won that game because we fought, we rebounded, and we played tough and kept believing in ourselves and stayed together the entire game."
Dillon Mitchell on his first Crosstown Shootout
"This is my first year here, but I could easily say that was by far the most fun I've had in college basketball. By far that was 100% the best atmosphere I've ever been in, home or away. That was so much fun to play, and especially being new here. Everybody talks about the whole Xavier Cincinnati rivalry, but to be a part of it and then having all the fans out like that, it pushed us to a whole nother level. I think just as far as we knew shots weren't falling and we knew we were making mistakes. But digging through to the end, for the city, for us, for our brothers, that's what it was all about. Like I said before, that was the most fun I've had tonight. If we have Fifth Third like that every game, I don't see how anybody could really come in here and take a win from us."
NOTABLE
-Cincinnati leads the all-time series 52-40.
-Cincinnati is 11-1 in the last year-plus when Aziz Bandaogo scores in double-figures.
-Dillon Mitchell's other double-double this season came at Georgia Tech.
-Jizzle James' five assists marked his sixth game this year with five or more dimes.
-Dan Skillings returned to the starting lineup. He came off the bench Sunday against Howard, his first action after missing the last six due to injury.
UP NEXT
Cincinnati faces Dayton at Heritage Bank Center on Friday at 8:30 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPNU.