Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Plays Complete Game to Beat TCU Horned Frogs at Home

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats basketball team led wire-to-wire in Saturday's 75-63 victory over the TCU Horned Frogs.

The defense was stellar, holding TCU to 40.9% shooting from the floor on 66 shots, all while committing just 18 combined fouls and turnovers.

Cincinnati is now 7-1 all-time against the Horned Frogs and shifts its focus for another quick turnaround on Tuesday against Baylor at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

Few Mistakes Made By Cincinnati

TCU has thrived off free throws in their recent winning surge, but that's a bad formula against a pretty disciplined Cincinnati team. UC is the best fouling team in the Big 12 and didn't commit many errors. The Horned Frogs were averaging over 24 free throw attempts per game in the last three games and shot just four on Saturday.

Cincinnati's man-to-man defense was stellar in the half-court and they didn't get handsy on touch fouls. It helped them keep normal rotations intact without Simas Lukošius and outlast the Horned Frogs.

On the other end, Cincinnati committed just eight turnovers and didn't give up much fastbreak action for easy points. The shooting wasn't great again on Saturday, but it's much easier to win in spite of that when you keep pace on the boards, don't foul, and don't commit a bevy of turnovers. Jizzle James (18 points, four rebounds, four assists) was the only player with three-plus turnovers in the game.

Josh Reed Makes His Mark

Reed (13 points on 5-5 shooting, two rebounds) has been a big silver lining from this disappointing season so far and that continued in his second consecutive start on Saturday. He was a big part of Cincinnati's hounding defense and continued to be hyper-efficient on offense to connect plenty of possessions.

He shot 100% from the field and hauled in a few key rebounds to help Cincinnati lead on that front 39-32. TCU is a flat-out bad team that can only get going if the other team is fouling and Reed made sure not to be a weak point on that front.

Reed's earning a bigger role and maximizing it, playing 20-plus minutes in four consecutive games, while his top-four career single-game minute totals have all come in the past few weeks.

Cincinnati Owns The Glass

After a few rough showings on the rebounding front, UC got after it in a big way on Saturday. The Bearcats won the rebounding battle 39-32, including 12 offensive rebounds that led to 14 second chance points.

That's how you power through a mediocre shooting day like UC had. Dillon Mitchell (12 points, 13 rebounds) was a monster on the glass and had one of his best games in conference play overall, notching his first double-double since the loss to Kansas State.

He set the tone and everyone else followed, with four different Bearcats grabbing at least four rebounds. That has to be the mentality and glass result every game the rest of the way if Cincinnati wants to pull off the improbable and win out the final four games or the capture the Big 12 Tournament crown for a chance at the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

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