Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Smothers Bryant 85-53 Behind Dominant Aziz Bandaogo Defense
CINCINNATI — Cincinnati men's basketball got past Bryant 85-53 on Tuesday night as they moved to 8-1 on the season and 6-0 at home.
It was far from pretty but UC unlocked CJ Fredrick's shot (14 points, two rebounds) going again and hammered Bryant on the glass and at the free-throw line to win a game that harkened back to the Mick Cronin teams of old.
The Bearcats played one of the worst offensive games of the season but met it with great defense on the other end. Holding the lowly Bryant offense to under 35% shooting.
They now have some work to do before facing a Dayton team with one of the best offenses in the country and a defense ranked 104th nationally in adjusted efficiency, only a few spots behind Bryant entering Tuesday.
Aziz Annihilates
Aziz Bandaogo (12 points, 17 rebounds, four blocks) needs fine-tuning when it comes to affecting the game on offense, but my oh my, can he defend the rim, especially against teams this small.
The Utah Valley transfer patrolled the rim like an assassin, posting a season-high four with the added rebounds. It led to an astounding 23.9 defensive rating that Viktor Lakhin (seven points, 12 rebounds) also wowed in (58.6 def. rating).
Bandaogo swallowed up the small Bryant lineup like a blue whale eating krill and it directly led to the Bulldogs settling for contested threes when the paint stayed shut. When the Senegalese Superstar is playing like this on defense, UC can afford to shoot less than 40% from the field. He was UC's most valuable player on Tuesday night.
Sloppy Opening Half
Cincinnati played about as poorly as you can while still leading to open the game against Bryant—shooting 18% from the field while committing a whopping 10 turnovers.
They average 9.3 turns per game this season as a very uncharacteristic showing played out in a sandwich game between its two toughest non-conference opponents. Fredrick got rolling a bit on offense with a team-high nine points in the frame, but it was pretty much a mess all around.
From terrible big man lobs to sloppy ballhandling in the open court, Cincinnati looked hungover from Saturday's emotional loss against Xavier as Fredrick was the only player to shoot over 33% from the field in that half, and Day Day Thomas ended as the lone player to leave the floor without a turnover.
Still, a 15-3 free throw attempt advantage gave them the narrow lead and allowed them to build off it in the second half. It led to a 60% shooting mark from the field in the final 20 minutes.
Board Domination
Cincinnati largely won this game because of its imposing size over a small Bryant rotation. Tuesday marked the first game all season they've shot below 41.8% and Cincinnati's massive 57-33 advantage allowed them to avoid a two in the loss column.
Lakhin and Bandaogo drove that train with 29 combined boards as they towered over a Bryant team that didn't play anyone over 6-foot-7. The offensive glass was the biggest factor as UC got to hunt more contact and free-throw line trips due to the strong tenacity on that end.
Rebounding is the great equalizer in these rock fight games and UC made sure they multiplied their chances.
Six different players picked up three-plus boards as UC fought through as frustrating shooting night.
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