Stars Of The Game: Ody Oguama And More Ignite 84-65 Win Over South Florida

A perfect performance, a shooter regaining his stroke and a near double-double propel the Bearcats to a much-needed win

Author:
Alex Frank
Feb 12, 2023 11:45 AM EST

In this story:

DAYTON — For 15 minutes, the duration of halftime, it looked the Cincinnati Bearcats might suffer a disappointing defeat.

Down four. At home. Against USF, a team who entered just 3-8 in conference play but had beaten Cincinnati at home each of the last two seasons.

"There were some things in the first half that were very frustrating," Bearcats head coach Wes Miller said. "I'm sure they were frustrating to watch."

But the Cincinnati Bearcats responded, absent Viktor Lahkin and Rob Phinisee, with a 50-point second half to cruise past the Bulls 84-65. Even though USF is only 3-8 in conference play and 10-14 overall, it was an impressive response.

Seven of the Bulls' first 11 conference games were decided by 10 points or less. And for the Bearcats to trail at the half without two of their best players and come back and outscore the Bulls 50-27 says a lot about this team's resolve.

"Needless to say, guys, the second half was what you want to see," Miller said. "We got our hands on balls, our defense was active, defense leads to offense."

The Bearcats shot 65.6 percent from the field in the second half, including 7/10 from three-point range. The Bearcats also had 15 assists on those 21 made shots and turned the ball over just three times. Here are my three stars of the game.

Jeremiah Davenport - He's still probably a frustrating player to some of you. But, as a friend of mine told me after the game, he's like a drug you can't get rid of. Just when you're ready to, he bounces back with a stellar performance. That included a game-high 18 points, five assists, and three steals. He's still only shooting 32.1% from three-point range and under 35% overall, but shooters keep shooting.

"Jeremiah (Davenport) I thought played some of his best offensive basketball and defensive basketball there in the second half, and that gave us a huge lift," Miller said. "He is one of the better offensive talents we have in college basketball with his ability to shoot it and stretch the floor. I want him to be aggressive and take shots and make plays, but sometimes it goes a little too far. He is fun to coach, and I am proud of how he responded tonight."

2. Ody Oguama - For the second straight game, Oguama filled in nicely in the absence of Viktor Lahkin. Saturday night, he was perfect. Oguama went 9-9 in an 18-point performance, with 14 of those points coming in the second half.

“He was finishing well early in the season but went through a tough stretch in conference play where you could see it was in his head," Miller said. "He went and worked at his game to get extra time in the gym and focus more in practice, and now he is starting to finish again over the last couple of weeks. I love seeing him finish with a career-high 18 points and 9-for-9 from the floor.”

3. David DeJulius - Saturday night was another spectacular performance from DeJulius. The fifth-year senior totaled 10 points and nine assists. That's now a nation-leading 11 straight games with five or more assists, and he now has three games in his last five overall with nine or more assists.

"I'm proud of him," Miller said. "I thought he really did some nice things to try to get us going defensively and get our grit and our edge going defensively tonight that might not show up in the stat sheet.

"That might not be the cool thing to talk about, but there's some possessions where he just sits down and defends and it makes the rest of our team want to defend. So, I was proud of him."

UP NEXT: A road game Wednesday night at ECU. It's the first of two games on the road next week for the Bearcats, as they look to climb the AAC standings to the two or three seed in the conference tournament.

Make sure you bookmark All Bearcats for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more.

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