TicketsANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Cincinnati men’s basketball team topped preseason No. 7 Michigan, 100-98, in an exhibition game Friday night at Crisler Center. The contest was the first tune-up for both teams, as each saw its first live action after significant roster turnover from 2024-25.
With it being the first exhibition, both teams tinkered with different rotations throughout as each played without key pieces to their roster.
“What we talked about with the guys was when the ball goes up and you’re wearing a Cincinnati uniform, you’re as competitive as you can possibly be, but we really treated this exhibition as a great tool to build,” Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller said. “There is so much great tape to learn from after this game. We have such a long way to go on both sides of the ball but the film will be really useful for us in the long run.”
Shon Abaev, Kerr Kriisa and Moustapha Thiam led six Bearcats in double figures with 15, while Sencire Harris added 13, Day Day Thomas poured in 12 and Baba Miller scored 11. Miller added six boards and four assists, Thomas pulled down six rebounds and dished out three helpers and Harris had five rebounds, five steals and four assists. Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg poured in 31, including 26 after halftime, while grabbing 12 boards. Roddy Gayle Jr. poured in 18 more for the Wolverines.
After the Wolverines opened the contest with a 15-11 advantage after an alley-oop dunk by Lendeborg at the 12:41 mark, the Bearcats outscored Michigan 26-12 over the next nine minutes to take a 41-23 advantage on an Abaev 3-pointer – his third of the half – with 3:39 remaining in the half. Cincinnati remained hot the rest of the half, shooting 58.8% from the field and 38.9% from deep, while forcing 14 Wolverine turnovers, to take a 52-34 lead into the break.
Abaev led all scorers with 11 points at the half while Harris had eight while proving to be a menace on the other side of the ball, recording three thefts. Miller was another bright spot for the Bearcats in the opening 20 minutes, going for six points, six boards (three offensive) and three assists. Elliot Cadeau led Michigan with nine points and four assists at the break.
Lendeborg then sparked the Wolverines to start the second half, connecting on his first four shots of the stanza to score 12 points and trim the Bearcat lead to 61-51 with 15:26 remaining. Consecutive threes by Will Tschetter then cut the Cincinnati advantage to 73-68 with 10:41 left to play, but Michigan couldn’t get any closer until a 6-0 run over a minute, capped by a Lendeborg layup made it 86-84 Bearcats with 4:23 on the clock.
The UC advantage stood at 92-89 when Thomas pulled up from the top of the key to drill a three to extend the lead to 95-89 with just over two minutes to play. Michigan answered with a bucket on the other end but Harris found Kriisa for a wing three to make it a 98-91 contest with 1:17 remaining.
Cincinnati held a 100-95 lead in the final 15 seconds when Thomas missed a pair of free throws and Tschetter followed with a fall-away three from the top of the key to make it a two-point game with 4.3 on the clock but the Bearcats were able to inbound the ball and run off the rest of the clock to come away with the exhibition win.
For the game, the Bearcats shot 55% from the field and connected on 12 of 31 (38.7%) shots from deep.
Cincinnati travels to Akransas for its second and final exhibition at 8 p.m. next Friday.