Skillings, Defense Lead No. 19 Bearcats Past No. 22 Dayton

CINCINNATI – Junior forward Daniel Skillings Jr. scored a game-high 17 points to lead the No. 19-ranked Cincinnati men's basketball team to a 66-59 victory over No. 22-ranked Dayton on Friday night in the Simple Truth Hoops Classic presented by CareSource at Heritage Bank Center.
 
Skillings added six rebounds and four steals. He led three Bearcats in double figures. Sophomore point guard Jizzle James scored 14 points, making 4 of 6 from behind the arc, and recorded a career-high three blocks. Senior wing Simas Lukosius added 13 points, drilling three triples.  
 
The Bearcats improved to 9-1 on the season, while the Flyers dropped to 10-3. Dayton, winners over two top-six teams this year, entered the night 10th nationally in KenPom for offense. It was held to season-lows in points, field goal percentage (39.2) and a high in turnovers (17).
 
Cincinnati, which went 11-of-12 from the foul line over the final 5:59, led by as many as 18 in the second half after James hit a pair of 3-pointers with under 11 minutes remaining, but Dayton fought back.
 
Dayton guards Malachi Smith and Posh Alexander got hot and their shot-making chipped away at the Bearcats' lead down the stretch.
 
Smith's 3-pointer cut UC's lead to 61-57 with two minutes remaining and forced the Bearcats to call timeout.  
 
Senior center Aziz Bandaogo answered by calmly hitting two free throws to put Cincinnati back up by 6 with 56 seconds left.  
 
After a missed 3-pointer by Dayton forward Nick Santos, the Flyers fouled Cincinnati guard Day Day Thomas, who made a pair of free throws to extend the Bearcats' advantage to eight with 30 seconds left.
 
Skillings Jr. dove on the floor for his fourth steal of the game seven seconds later to effectively end the Dayton threat.
 
Cincinnati held a 38-32 edge on the glass and forced 17 turnovers. Dayton never held a lead in the game.
 
Both teams struggled from the field in the first half.
 
The Bearcats missed their first six shots, but jumped out to an early lead by dominating the glass and shutting down the Flyers' offense. Dayton didn't connect on a field goal until the 8:45 mark in the first half. The Flyers missed their first 11 field goal attempts as Cincinnati built a double-digit lead.
 
Junior forward Dillon Mitchell's block led to a corner trey from freshman wing Tyler Betsey that made the score 16-4 and forced Dayton to call a timeout at 10:55.
 
After Dayton finally made a field goal, the Flyers used jumpers from Smith and Alexander to pull within 6, 23-17, at the 1:20 mark in the first half.
 
Cincinnati led 25-17 at halftime after a putback by Mitchell.

FROM WES MILLER
"I want to start off saying this, with two points that are important tonight. First, I loved how many Cincinnati fans there were this year. That was awesome...The difference was all our people that came out tonight. I want to thank all the Bearcats, and I know they prefer to watch us at Fifth Third, but they wanted to support that basketball team tonight, because you knew Dayton would travel down the road. I was really impressed with our fans. That end of the floor by our bench, you could really feel that. The second thing I want to say is that was a hell of a basketball team we played tonight. Anthony Grant, in the two years of scouting those guys, it was the most difficult prep I've had in a long time. They are tough, they defend and they're a great offensive team that can shoot the lights out. I think they can be great if they stay healthy, a team that can play in the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight. They are that good. 

"I'm proud of the win and our kids. We defended our tails off tonight, especially in the first half. We set a tone defensively, and our kids were completely focused and locked in on the scout, forcing deflections and turnovers. We hit the boards too. We had good some moments offensively early in the game with good shots and getting to the board. There was a stretch in the first half where their pressure probably affected us into not getting good shots. I thought we weathered the storm a little bit, and it eventually opened back up. We're coming on offense. We are starting to have stretches tonight where the offense got better."

NOTABLE
-This was the sixth ranked win for Wes Miller at Cincinnati, with three of those now coming on neutral floors (Illinois in Kansas City in 2021-22 and Kansas in KC for the Big 12 Tourney in 2023-24).
-Dan Skillings' 17 points matched his season-high from his double-double in the opener. He has since played 14, 26 and now 27 minutes in his first three games back from his knee injury.
-Jizzle James' four three-pointers matched a career-high set last year as a freshman against Iowa State.
-The Bearcats held Dayton to 39.2 percent shooting on the heels of limiting Xavier to 37.9.
-Aziz Bandaogo is up to a career-high 70.4 percent at the foul line after shooting 54.5 percent last year.
-This was the fifth meeting out of 93 overall with Dayton in which both teams were ranked (the last in 2003). UC leads 61-32 all-time, avenging an 82-68 loss in Heritage Bank Center last year.
 
UP NEXT
Cincinnati hosts Grambling State at 4 p.m. on Sunday at Fifth Third Arena (ESPN+) before taking eight days off. UC opens Big 12 play at Kansas State on Monday. Dec. 30 at 7 p.m. on CBS Sports Network.