Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Drops UCF 73-64 For Crucial Win

Cincinnati moved to 14-5 in the all-time series.

Author:
Russ Heltman
Updated:
Feb 4, 2023 3:39 PM EST

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Bearcats (16-8, 6-4) dispatched UCF (13-9, 4-6) 73-64 on Saturday afternoon.

It marked the team's second Quad 2 win of the season and offered some breathing room between UCF and themselves in the AAC standings.

David DeJulius (19 points, 7 assists, 7-of-10 FGs) hit some massive shots as UC's havoc-creating defense led the way. He has now scored over 1,000 points at Cincinnati.

Cincinnati notched a season-high 10 steals in the first half to destroy any UCF offensive rhythm.

Freshman forward Taylor Hendricks (21 points, 8 rebounds) led the Knights. Yet, he didn't have enough winning impact to tilt the result. Wes Miller's man-to-man system is starting to shine as we come down the stretch of his second season.

"I thought defensively in the first half that’s as active as we've been guarding the drive and it was multiple things," Miller said postgame. "It's not just the guy guarding the ball handler and that was pretty good tonight.

Here's the Three Man Weave on a big win at Fifth Third Arena.

Turnover Town

UCF could not figure out Cincinnati's sneaky attacking defense on Saturday, dooming them to an ugly offensive day. Cincinnati forced a season-high 24 turnovers, one more than Chaminade gave up. A season-high 16 were steals as the defensive principles start to stick more and more.

Whether it was the frontcourt with Viktor Lakhin (20 points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals) or the backcourt with Nolley (17 points, career-high 5 steals) and DeJulius (2 steals), Cincinnati hounded them all day.

"I did think our defense was significantly more active today and that’s the area that we’ve been very critical of our defense as a coaching staff," Miller said. "We are doing great things but haven’t been generating enough turnovers. We have been emphasizing this in practice and it was great to see us get our hands on some balls today.”

UC's defense has looked stronger and stronger as they've allowed a defensive rating above 94 just twice in the past six games. Those two rough showings? Memphis and Houston.

UCF is no slouch on offense though, compared to a team like East Carolina. The Knights entered the game ranked 77th in offensive efficiency on the season. Continuing this defensive intensity to start games is crucial as the run toward AAC tournament play continues.

Last Half Lakhin

The big Russian likes himself some second-half shine.

Lakhin took over the final 20 minutes inside, scoring a career-high 18 points in the half, along with 5 boards. It was a menacing, mean-mug performance. A few of those buckets going in against Hendricks.

Vik used every low block move in his bag. It was 20-minute encapsulation of all the work he's put in over the past 12 months. He led all players with an amazing 28-game score and had his most free throws made without a miss as a Bearcat (6-of-6).

Saturday marked the most minutes he's ever played, as each of his four highest-career minute outings fell in the last month.

“I thought he played very well today," Miller said. "You all know how hard I am on him because of how good I think he is. I thought he had some very nice defensive positions, but he also had some defensive breakdowns too during that stretch where he was late to close out and wasn’t in a stance on a possession against Hendricks. Other than that I thought he was very good and also perfect from the free throw line. He works so hard from the free throw line. He is not going to start taking three pointers yet, but they will get to that eventually and that is the next step.”

The only thing left for the Russian to add is a consistent jump shot from outside. Miller has noted his growth there is continuing, but not to game level yet. It seems every month, Lakhin is adding more and more impact to winning at Cincinnati.

"What the scouts see when they watch I don't know," Miller said about his NBA potential. "I can just tell you what I see. I do think [Lakhin] has the ability to play at that level. He's got to continue to grow, but people that know basketball see the instincts, they see the length, and they see that he's improving at a really fast rate.”

Hendricks Hammers

Hendricks had one of the best performances of his freshman season inside Fifth Third Arena, but it was hard not to notice the future NBA draft pick. The forward started taking matters into his own hands once crunch time hit in the second half, finishing with the second-most points he's scored this season.

He showed off some nice shot creation and driving skills on UC's defense late. That largely happened because his guards, like CJ Kelly (5 turnovers), couldn't hold onto the ball.

Hendricks created his own entry passes on a day where he showed off the long-range acumen (4-of-9 from deep) and got to the rim easily at times. Multiple scouts and national media members were in attendance to see what the freshman had to offer, and he delivered.

On the other end, he held his own with a team-best 97.8 defensive rating.

"I don't know how many NBA teams were here tonight, but I know they were here to see [Hendricks] because he's a projected top-15 pick and he can guard multiple positions," Miller said.

Only Lakhin had a higher game score among all players, as Hendricks showed his full bag of skills in front of an important audience.

Cincinnati now gets ready for a road bout against Tulane on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET. The game is available on ESPN+.

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