BYU vs Cincinnati game recap
This was a game of runs between BYU and Cincinnati in Ohio. Things started out pretty even, with the two teams going back and forth for the first five minutes. Cincinnati then took over and jumped out to an eight point lead with nine minutes left in the first half. BYU punched back hard and went into the locker room with a three-point lead.
Ice cold shooting became an issue for the Cougars in the second half, as they went scoreless for six entire minutes at the beginning of the half. Cincinnati took advantage and went on a 20-2 run and found themselves up by 15 with 13 minutes remaining.
Head coach Kevin Young looked to his bench and found something in Mihailo Boskovic and Trey Stewart. Stewart entered the game and immediately hit a 3-pointer. Boskovic shook off a bad turnover and provided some much needed defense stops against two of the NCAA All-Name team players in Jizzle James and Day Day Thomas, as well as a three of his own.
The Cougars continued to fight back with an uncommon group of Boskovic, Stewart, Dallin Hall, Dawson Baker, and Kanon Catchings. In the next five minutes, this unconventional lineup cut the lead to just eight. Some interesting misses from Stewart and Catchings led to easy buckets for Cincinnati en route to another big run, in which it doubled the lead to 16. The Bearcats would then coast to an 84-66 victory, their second straight Big 12 win after defeating UCF earlier this week.
A key storyline in this one was BYU's inability to stop Jizzle James, who had a career day. He exploded for 24 points and shot 6-7 from beyond the arc. His previous career high in 3-pointers was 4, against Dayton on December 20th.
Unimpressive BYU Offense
This game was shrouded with several disappointing offensive performance for the Cougars.
Player | Points | Shooting % |
|---|---|---|
Egor Demin | 12 | 38% |
Richie Saunders | 15 | 50% |
Dallin Hall | 3 | 33% |
Trevin Knell | 3 | 33% |
Kanon Catchings | 3 | 50% |
9 points combined between Hall, Knell, and Catchings is simply not enough to compete in the most difficult conference in the country. Hall shot 1-3, Knell, 1-3, and Catchings 1-2. Honestly an embarrassing effort from two of the veteran "leaders" of the team, Catchings gets a break. BYU shot 10-29 from three and 24-51 overall. Only 22 shots from inside the arc is a terrible number for a team of talented slashers.
With the loss, BYU falls to .500 on the season in Big 12 play and continues to live on the edge of the NCAA tournament bubble. According to Joe Lunardi, the loss drops BYU to the last team in the tournament. It will look to bounce back at West Virginia on Tuesday.