Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Struggles Against Georgia State For Second Win of 2025-26 Season

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats basketball team got another win on Friday night, 74-64 over Georgia State, but it clearly wasn't a breeze like the season-opening blowout.

The Panthers entered this one as 30-point betting underdogs, but fought hard, especially in the first half, to only trail 39-30 and lost the second half by one point. UC was led by Baba Miller's 24 points on a night where the offense looked disjointed outside of his impact.

Cincinnati shot just 23% from deep and 65.4% from the free-throw line.

It's another learning process outing for this completely new rotation. Cincinnati is now 2-0 all-time against GSU and has more tape to work with ahead of Tuesday's big home clash against Dayton.

Fastbreak Storyline: Sloppy Showing

Cincinnati carried the turnover bug (16) over into this game as they search for some consistency in a paced-up offense. They weren't able to find a dominant rhythm against the 322nd-ranked team nationally on KenPom.

The outside shooting went cold from the jump, and everything offensively became a slog after that. Shon Abaev (four points, 1-6 shooting) came back down to earth after his scorching debut. The freshman was out of the flow of the game and will understandably have those moments in his first college season.

Cincinnati did not find much success from outside as the two sides basically went shot-for-shot from deep to keep GSU within striking distance all night. The ball movement just wasn't sound enough to create a bunch of open shots, even though they played one of the worst projected defenses in the nation.

Baba Miller posted an elite 34 efficiency score on the night, but he didn't get many other players to reinforce that outing. No one else rated above 15. The Bearcats will get taken out by Dayton on Tuesday, playing like they did tonight. Eastern Michigan beat GSU 71-49 just earlier this week.

Player of the Game: Baba Miller

Miller (24 points, 11 rebounds) continued showing his dynamic ability on each end of the floor and even mixed in a deep shot in Game 2 with Cincinnati.

The FAU transfer leads all UC players in scoring through two games and was the driving force behind no upset worry on Friday. Things could've been in dire straits without him.

Miller got to his sweet spots on offense in the paint and logged his second consecutive double-double to mark a rip-roaring start on the boards in his young Bearcats career. Miller was hyper-efficient, scoring 24 points on just nine shots.

Cincinnati needs more players to perform like that on Tuesday.

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