TicketsCINCINNATI – Senior forward Baba Miller and sophomore center Moustapha Thiam both claimed double-doubles to lead the Cincinnati men’s basketball team to a 72-55 victory over Mount St. Mary’s on Sunday night at Fifth Third Arena. The win propelled the Bearcats to 4-0, while the Mountaineers fell to 1-3.
“During the last 12 minutes of the second half, we started playing Cincinnati basketball,” Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller said. “Day Day [Thomas] diving on the floor for a loose ball that didn't even look like it was in his area. I thought that was the defining moment during that stretch. Our length at the rim finally became a factor in the game in the second half. I thought we guarded the 3-point line better. Some of it was communication errors in transition, or communication errors on broken plays, which we practice all the time. I give them credit, like when we made a mistake in the first half, they made the shot. I thought our defense led to offense in the second half, and it was a much better second half than it was the first half for us.”
Miller scored 13 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as the Mallorca, Spain, native recorded his third double-double of the season. Thiam added 13 points and 10 boards for his first double-double of the year. It marked the first time two Bearcats posted double-doubles in the same game since Jizzle James and Dan Skillings did so on Nov. 4, 2024, against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Both also added four blocks.
After a back-and-forth battle, Cincinnati pulled away in the second half with a 19-3 run over an 8:32 stretch to take an 11-point lead at 61-50 with 6:22 remaining.
Graduate student Day Day Thomas poured in a game-high 16 points and went a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc. He also added season highs of five assists and five rebounds. Freshman guard Keyshuan Tillery chipped in a career-best nine points in 14 minutes.
Cincinnati forced Mount St. Mary’s into 19 turnovers and converted them into 21 points. The Mountaineers forced 10 turnovers but failed to turn any into points. The Bearcats attacked physically, reaching the free-throw line 30 times and making 18 attempts. UC also controlled the interior, with Thiam and Miller each blocking four shots as Cincinnati outscored the Mountaineers 34-18 in the paint and held a 46-36 advantage on the glass.
A sluggish start for the Bearcats led to a 26-21 Mount St. Mary’s advantage with eight minutes left in the opening half as the Mountaineers were connecting on half of their shots from the field (10-for-20) and 5-of-9 3-point attempts. The Mount St. Mary’s lead swelled to nine at 36-27 on a Luke McEldon hook shot with 1:21 remaining but Miller’s third rejection of the half led to a runout that resulted in a Tillery three from the top of the key to trim the deficit to 36-30 heading into the half.
In the opening 20 minutes, Tillery paced the Bearcats with eight points while Miller added seven points, five boards and three blocks. Xavier Lipscomb poured in 13 and pulled down six boards for the Mountaineers.
In the opening minutes of the second half, Thiam swatted a Justin Amadi layup attempt and sprinted down the floor to finish a floater, cutting UC’s deficit to 38-36. His effort sparked a 6-0 run that pushed the Bearcats back in front, 42-41, with 16:01 left.
Mount St. Mary’s answered with a 7-0 burst at the 14:16 mark to retake control, 48-42 but Cincinnati responded again, stringing together a 10-0 run highlighted by a Shon Abaev high-flying slam and capped by a Miller dunk to go ahead 52-48 with 9:54 remaining. A McEldon layup briefly halted the surge, but UC kept rolling with a 9-0 run to stretch its lead to 11.
The Bearcats closed out the game on an 11-3 spurt, capped by a one-handed alley-oop tomahawk dunk from Thomas off a Kerr Kriisa assist to seal the 17-point win in style.
Cincinnati takes on No. 12 Louisville at 6:30 p.m. Friday in the Hoops Classic at Heritage Bank Center.