Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Bearcats Basketball Splits UCF Season Series With Home Rivalry Win

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats found a Big 12 rivalry win for the first time this season on Sunday, 92-72 over UCF. It was the first time in 2026 Big 12 play that Cincinnati crossed the 80-point mark and the third time this season they've scored 90-plus points.

UC played a nice, balanced team game in the return of Moustapha Thiam (15 points, seven rebounds), who helped beef things up on both ends of the floor. The win moved Cincinnati back to 12-12 on the season and leaves them with a final Big 12 rivalry record of 1-5 overall this season.

The Bearcats held UCF to 40.9% shooting, outrebounded them 37-31, and only turned the ball over 11 times. Cincinnati now holds a 19-7 lead in the all-time series against the Knights. That includes a 9-1 record in Clifton.

Cincinnati had six players score at least seven points on Sunday afternoon.

Put It All Together

UCF was 17-5 entering this game, and is one of the luckier teams in the country (fourth in KenPom's luck metric). Cincinnati toppled that Jenga tower early and often. The Knights couldn't work various levels of the floor like they tend to do as a strong offense, and it led to a slog for their 76.3 PPG Big 12 unit.

Lead scorers Riley Kugel (10 points) and Thomas Fulks (zero points) had major trouble getting to their spots, and UCF was mostly shut away from the free-throw line. Those guards love to find contact and get to the line during slow spurts from the whole offense, and UC stayed ready for all of their attacks (15 FTAs by UCF).

Cincinnati clearly showed how much better it can play when Thiam is in the fold. He was a sound plus-26 plus/minus in the game and impacted both ends with his much-needed length. His return gave Tyler McKinley's knee a breather today after he was the only forward option left to join Baba Miller (17 points, 10 rebounds) down the stretch of Wednesday's loss.

The Bearcats play like a top-50 team in the country when Thiam and Baba Miller are rolling out sound hoop on either end as they did this afternoon. That duo combined for 32 points, 17 rebounds and six assists.

Bearcats Player Of The Game: Moustapha Thiam

The former UCF star came to play in both outings this season against his former team. Thiam deserves a lot of credit for fighting through his injury so quickly to return to a Bearcats lineup that was out of forward options down the rotation without him.

Cincinnati went to him early and often in the paint, showing off his one-handed finish skills around the hoop and adding multiple stocks (steals and blocks) on the other end of the floor. He had the second-highest plus/minus on the team behind Jalen Celestine and looked 100% healthy despite suffering the ailment a week ago.

Thiam played a much-needed number of minutes (31) in the game to connect all the right pieces for Cincinnati's offense and defense. He is Cincinnati's third-most valuable player this season by overall efficiency and they were glad to get him back.

He will try to keep it rolling on Wednesday at Kansas State. That game starts at 9 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network.

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