Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Handles Lipscomb To Close 2025-26 Non-Conference Schedule

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats survived a quick scare from the Lipscomb Bisons on Monday night to move to 8-5 on the 2025-26 season.

Everything gets much harder starting this weekend at home against No. 8 Houston, but they can enjoy a good win tonight that included hot shooting from outside by a few players.

Jizzle James (16 points, five assists) and Sencire Harris (seven points, three rebounds) entered the starting lineup and helped the offense find some more twine. They paired it with great at-rim defense to leave little doubt about the result by the midway point of the first half. Baba Miller (11 points, 21 rebounds, seven assists) was a big part of that snagging a career-high in rebounds.

UC is now 4-0 all-time against the Bisons and wrapped up a non-conference schedule ranked 249th in difficulty on KenPom, while their remaining schedule was ESPN BPI's 36th toughest entering the night.

Wes Miller gets plenty of time to come up with his first winning plan against Houston (0-9 all-time with a -12.7 average point differential).

Lineup Changes Spark Shotmaking

Cincinnati changed 40% of its starting lineup ahead of the contest, and it worked out really well almost immediately. The 44-24 first half featured lineups that flowed better in transition and flummoxed a solid 113th-ranked Lipscomb by KenPom's adjusted efficiency.

Everyone took pretty sound, in-rhythm shots for the most part and continued to do a nice job moving the ball with 21 assists. They've done that well all season, but haven't made the easy, close looks enough for one reason or another. That didn't matter as much on a night where the team went 11-29 from deep, including a 3-3 start from Kerr Kriisa (5-8 from three).

Having James and Day Day Thomas (eight points, three assists) initiate the offense as two clear threats to attack all three levels showed nice early returns as opposed to Just Thomas doing that when Kriisa played heavy minutes.

James was highly active in the game and is a player who has suddenly become the only real hope of pulling off a miracle big winning record in conference play and achieving that elusive NCAA Tournament role. Miller only went with a seven-man rotation getting heavy minutes during a large chunk of the game.

Baba Miller owned the highest minute share in the game for good reason, even though he shot poorly. The big man swallowed boards at will to give Cincinnati plenty of possessions to work with. He's been the nation's best defensive rebounder this season, and that has to continue this weekend against Houston, with some better scoring mixed in as well.

It was a nice bounce back offensively for the Bearcats against a team within 10 spots of them in the NET Rankings, but they still have a ton to prove, especially when the three isn't falling.

Bearcats Player Of The Game

Miller had the at-rim lid tied on tight in this game, but he was still the most impactful Bearcat on either end of the floor.

The long Spaniard posted his second-most single-game assists in college and had a clear desire to be a playmaking hub on Monday. He used his at-rim gravity to find close dishes in the paint and help Cincinnati lead the battle there 46-20. All in all, Miller had a game-high 32 efficiency score.

He once again showed he can be the best player on the floor in buy games.

The question is, can Miller transfer this performance against a decent defense, over to great ones like Houston brings on Saturday? He's only combined for 44 points total in Cincinnati's five Q1/Q2/Q3 games this season.

It's mostly Q1 and Q2 the rest of the way as the Big 12 gauntlet gets fired up Saturday at 2 p.m. ET on FOX.

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