Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Bearcats Fall to Houston Basketball For 12th Consecutive Time

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati went down to No. 4 Houston for a crushing in familair fashion as the Cougars won 73-64 on Saturday.

Cincinnati led 10-2 early but couldn't keep up enough tough shot making and mistake avoidance to pull out a much-needed upset. Only Day Day Thomas (19 points, three rebounds, and Jizzle James (18 points, five assists) really got going in spurts in the face of a monstrous half-court defense by one of the best in the country.

UC has now lost 12 consecutive games to Houston and has no answer for the clear best team in the conference. The Cougars sport one of the best offenses nationally and that got rolling throughout the game unlike the past few meetings.

Cincinnati's low NCAA Tournament odds took another hit on Saturday.

Complete Houston

The Cougars shot over 50%, owned the paint and split the scoring duties impressively across a dialed-in veteran rotation.

Cincinnati's half court offense has crumbled against great competition all season and tonight was no different. They posted just nine assists, and scored 24 paint points across an never-in-doubt outing.

There is no third on-ball scoring threat for Houston to worry about. So they played their normal defense and got mighty comfortable. UC won the rebounding battle, but it didn't matter with all the fouls, just a 6-20 mark on threes, and a lack of effectiveness on defense made sure they never got back into it after the first half.

Cincinnati can't score consistently when they aren't hitting jumpshots because of a lack of physicality and ability to get to the free throw line. Houston munched on that weakness with a 10 to six FT advantage on Saturday. The Cougars played clinical defense.

Domination for most of the outing.

James Tries To Save

James has been a key part of Cincinnati's miracle March Madness attempt down the stretch, but Saturday showed he doesn't have enough to compete with these defenses right now on his own.

He and Day Day Thomas had to grind out tough bucket after tough bucket to score on Houston. They played admirably but couldn't find enough easy points they needed from locked in movement offense against a defense that closes like this on isolation opportunities (16 of Cincinnati's 26 made shots).

Thomas tried his best to complement James's volume shooting but got into foul trouble throughout the day (four total) to nullify an efficient shooting showing. Still, Thomas deserves plenty of credit for his offensive performance against a great unit.

UC got Houston into the bonus 12 minutes into the first half and it killed any chance of winning. James wasn't strong enough and only Lukošius hit multiple threes for Cincinnati. That's a tough formula against Houston.

Frontcourt Issues

Cincinnati's inside presence lacked on the road in a huge opportunity Saturday. Dillon Mitchell's (five points, three rebounds) strong run of games came to a close and Dan Skillings Jr. (three points, six rebounds) made some killer mistakes in the deciding first half.

Add in a lesser performance from Josh Reed (four points, four fouls) and you get a mismatch against Houston's depth.

UC played Houston tough in the second 20 minutes ultimately outscoring them there. Cincinnati just needed more of a team effort on the scoring front to get a monumental road win.

Mitchell posted a rare single digit efficiency score (seven) and Bandaogo rebounded very well to help keep things closer, but offense just didn't click well enough inside to overcome the six made threes by UC.

They now try to pick up momentum in a home game against Kansas State on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

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