TicketsCINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati women’s basketball team hits the road for the first time this season when it faces Penn State at 6 p.m. Friday inside Rec Hall. The game will be streamed nationally on B1G+.
THE RUNDOWN
- Senior Mya Perry erupted for 31 points in her Bearcat debut, but Cincinnati fell 88-85 to Lehigh in its season opener Tuesday night inside Fifth Third Arena.
- Perry tied her career high on 11-of-17 shooting, including 6-of-8 from three-point range. Her 31 points were the most by a Bearcat since Ilmar’I Thomas scored 51 on Feb. 24, 2021. It was just the fifth time this century a Bearcat scored 30-plus points while hitting at least six threes.
- Perry’s scoring performance leads the Big 12 and ranks seventh nationally among games played through Nov. 5.
- Junior Reagan Jackson added 21 points, her third career 20-point game. She connected on four three-pointers and went a career-best 7-of-8 from the free throw line.
- Perry and Jackson became the first Bearcat duo to each score 20 or more points and make four threes in the same game since March 2, 2020, when Antoinette Miller and Sam Rodgers accomplished the feat against East Carolina.
- Cincinnati posted its best three-point shooting performance since 2023, finishing 55% (11-20 3FG) from beyond the arc. The percentage ranks third nationally this week.
- Caliyah DeVillasee, Kylie Torrence, Joya Crawford and Mary Carden also made their Cincinnati debuts in the opener. Six Bearcats played more than 20 minutes, four of them newcomers.
- DeVillasee finished with 14 points and five assists in her first collegiate game, the highest-scoring debut by a Cincinnati freshman since Ilmar’I Thomas’ 19-point performance at ETSU in 2017.
- Cincinnati’s freshman class is ranked No. 15 nationally by ESPN, the highest in program history and third in the Big 12. The class features two top-100 players: Dee Alexander (No. 11) and Caliyah DeVillasee (No. 62).
- The Bearcats will face a challenging non-conference slate, playing four teams that reached the NCAA Tournament or WBIT last season and three others that played in the WNIT.
- Big 12 women’s basketball head coaches voted Dee Alexander the conference’s Preseason Freshman of the Year. The five-star guard is Cincinnati’s first Big 12 individual preseason award honoree. She was recently named to the USBWA’s preseason watch list for the Tamika Catchings Award, presented annually to the national freshman of the year.
- Cincinnati is coming off its first winning season in five years. The Bearcats posted their best non-conference record (.800) since 2005-06 and their most conference wins (7) since 2019-20.
- Friday’s game will be the first meeting between the Bearcats and the Nittany Lions. Cincinnati is looking for its first win over a Big Ten opponent since March 24, 2019, when they took down Minnesota 72-65 in the second round of the WNIT.
- Cincinnati took a foreign tour in August, spending seven days in Rome and winning both games against international competition. The NCAA granted the team 10 additional practices as part of the trip.