Three Man Weave: No. 6 Louisville Controls Second Half Against Cincinnati in 74-64 Result

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats basketball squad fought hard against No. 6 Louisville, but another horrid shooting outing did them in 74-64 after a four-point lead at halftime.

UC is now 44-57 all-time against the Cardinals, who got another nice scoring showing from game leader Ryan Conwell (25 points, five rebounds). Meanwhile, Cincinnati didn't have anyone hit the teens in scoring. They got off to a near double-digit lead in the first half, but U of L adjusted like great teams tend to do. UC ended up just 37% from the floor and 63% at the free-throw line.

Cincinnati is still left searching for its first-ever Top-10 win under Wes Miller, who didn't have many reliable scoring options to go to inside Heritage Bank Center.

Fastbreak Storyline: Rivalry Rekindled

Friday night was a great back-and-forth matchup between two teams playing for the 101st time in the series. Both teams brought the defensive intensity in this one, especially Cincinnati, as they held down an offense averaging 103 points per game to just 74 points, by far their lowest of the season.

Moustapha Thiam (10 points, nine rebounds, three blocks) and Sencire Harris (nine points, one steal) led the force on that front down low and up top with sub-90 defensive ratings for each player. Thiam, in particular, showed why he could be a defensive mauler in the NBA very soon. He owned his matchup against elite Louisville big man Sananda Fru (11 points, four boards), who entered the game with an ACC-best 165.8 offensive rating, but he was far from that level in Heritage Bank Center (73.9).

Free throws and rough shooting from Cincinnati ultimately did them in during this game, but they showed they can hang with one of the best teams in the country on Friday night. Louisville's Conwell was the only player on the floor to hang around 50% on more than eight shots in an all-out defensive war.

Cincinnati is posting one of the worst free-throw marks in the country, and the worst FT number of the Miller era got even worse on Friday night (10-16). It was a key factor they had to take advantage of, and they just let too many of those freebies slip away. Add in an injury to Baba Miller (nine points), and things got ugly fast for UC down the stretch.

Shon Abaev (12 points on 4-16 shooting) has not come close to living up to his five-star status as a Bearcat, posting another horrific shooting game like the one he had against Mount St. Mary's. He was out of sync all night and took a lot of ill-advised shots out of the offensive flow. He entered the game shooting 44% on the season and a paltry 20% from deep. Those numbers only cratered further after this game.

Star of the Game: Day Day Thomas

Cincinnati's veteran guard dynamo once again maintained some control of the moment this season as he cements himself as the team's offensive engine (12 points, four rebounds, six assists). Thomas helped UC operate pretty well in the half-court during the first half before things fella apart and picked the right spots to attack the Cardinals' defense.

He did an alright job guarding the U of L guard tandem on the other end of the floor jumpshot-wise, but they still combined for 47 points. Thomas was once again perfect from the line, and kept decent care of the ball against one of the nastier steal-creating teams in the country (11.3 steals per game by Louisville coming in, 21st nationally).

Thomas has found his best groove at UC in his extra year of eligibility, and he rode that confidence to the best Bearcats performance on Friday night. Yet, that's not saying much when you shoot less than 35% from the floor against the 59th-best team in the country by defensive efficiency (3-14 on FGs).

Cincinnati has NJIT up next on Monday night at home before another home game against Eastern Michigan on Wednesday.

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