Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Falls Flat on Senior Night 54-49 Against Kansas State

CINCINNATI — A brutal blow.

Cincinnati's final home game of the season came to a closing thud 54-49 against Kansas State.

The Wildcats swept the season series and basically guaranteed Cincinnati's only path to the NCAA Tournament is by winning the Big 12 Tournament next week. It was only K-State's third road win of the season as David N'Guessan (18 points, 10 rebounds, four assists) drove the victory down low.

No Bearcat scored more than 12 points in a hapless offensive showing at home (36.8% shooting).

N'Guessan Munches

The Bearcats had no answer for the most efficient scorer in the conference on Wednesday. N'Guessan torched UC on the inside (8-10 shooting) and showed why he leads the Big 12 in shooting percentage this season.

KSU runs pretty solid actions on offense, and while they couldn't buy a triple (3-18 from deep), the 6-9 versatile big fella still found plenty of creases and consistently punished Cincinnati on the blocks down low.

The double team never really came, so KSU kept running the offense through him via constant ball screens with their various guards. Add in the return of Coleman Hawkins (nine points, eight rebounds, three assists) and Cincinnati had serious problems they couldn't overcome in the front court.

Both players hunted mismatches on smaller players and were the driving forces on the glass and scoreboard.

Half Court Defense Thrives, Offense Crumbles

Cincinnati wasn't in sync the whole game on the rebounding front (37-36 advantage), but the defense produced plenty of those chances. The half-court continuity was on display all night long and a huge reason no Wildcats player broke out for a big game.

UC was active in passing lanes all night, sparked by a decent outing from Dan Skillings Jr. (seven points, three rebounds) compared to his showings over the past month. Add in Dillon Mitchell (two points, seven rebounds) doing a fantastic job in man-to-man coverage on KSU's scoring forwards and you get a brutal shooting night from the Wildcats (40.7%).

Cincinnati picked on the weakness of Kansas State and didn't let a rough shooting night on their end stop them from constant communication on defense. Rough to say the least. UC looked pretty lifeless on offense, with wonky shots from outside (2-18) and a terrible showing at the free-throw line (5-11). It was a disappointing offensive execution effort at a point in the season where Cincinnati had to keep winning.

Day Day Thomas (12 points, two rebounds) was the only Bearcat to make a three against one of the better three-point defenses in the conference. A disjointed, terrible shooting effort may have just obliterated Cincinnati's season ceiling for good

Hawkins was coming off a three-game absence due to a knee injury and UC gave him little breathing room to get in the rhythm of the game, but he got rolling in the second half and so did the KSU offense (13-26 shooting in the final 20 minutes).

Glass Issues

Cincinnati has been one of the worst rebounding teams in the conference since league play opened and that continued on Wednesday night. KSU got plenty of extra chances on the offensive glass and more than kept pace on the other end to ensure a heavier shot diet than Cincinnati.

Hawkins was strong on that front—along with N'Guessan. The latter got into some nasty rebound scrums and came out on top. It wasn't a lack of effort—Cincinnati just couldn't get a great handle on a few wonky bounces here and there.

Cincinnati entered the game 14th among Big 12 teams in total rebounding and 15th on the defensive glass. Needing at least a four-game win streak for the first time in Big 12 play, UC had to find more edges on the glass to give themselves the strongest chance possible at cracking the 2025 NCAA Tournament field. Alas, no key players came foward to execute the right way to formulate a win, Josh Reed, James, and Simas Lukošius combined to shoot 8-28 from the floor.

Next up is a similarly poor rebounding team in Oklahoma State (10th in Big 12) on the road this Saturday at 3 p.m. ET.

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