Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Takes Care of Business Against Eastern Washington 85-73

The Bearcats went 3-0 during a busy opening week of the season.

Author:
Russ Heltman
Nov 12, 2023 2:13 PM EST

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CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Bearcats concluded its multi-team event this weekend with a 2-0 record after toppling the Eastern Washington Eagles 85-73.

The offense struggled compared to the 93-point showing on Friday night, but they still did more than enough to win thanks to another strong defensive showing from a top-25 unit nationally on that end early this season.

Cincinnati has now started 3-0 or better in every season of the Wes Miller era.

Sunday Vik Show

Viktor Lakhin (career-high 26 points, 11 rebounds) got to feast on a pretty small EWU team Sunday to post his career-high point total at UC. He did it thanks to some strong pick-and-roll movement and great rebounding. Lakhin dropped his ninth career double-double in the victory.

He even flashed that new three-point shot, making 2-of-3 attempts from outside. Still, it's all inside most of the time for Lakhin as he starts the year as the main interior weapon on offense and defense.

He showed how efficient he can be as a top-15 FG% player nationally last season by going 9-of-12 from the field on Sunday. The paint footwork looked fantastic as he dropped in multiple nice layups and played solid defense (96.9 rating).

Lakhin was the only Bearcat with a steal and block on Sunday. It also marked his second career 20-point double-double.

Defense Dialing In

The Bearcats entered Sunday with KenPom's 25th best adjusted defense nationally and that strong start mostly continued against the Eagles. Dan Skillings (nine points, seven rebounds, two steals) and the rest of the perimeter defenders were elite at forcing EWU into a heavy two-point diet and the rotations were strong as well.

Cincinnati forced a near seven-minute scoring drought from an albeit poor EWU offense this season, but still, the Bearcats didn't give them much room to climb out of the bottom third nationally on that end.

Lakhin was a solid rim presence as he and Ody Oguama (three points, four rebounds, one block) continued to do a nice job anchoring the interior defense with Jamille Reynolds and Aziz Bandaogo ineligible. Yet, there is still plenty of room to grow for UC's biggest strength. The second halves continue to get a little too relaxed as EWU was able to hang around thanks to some nice transition buckets in the final 20 minutes.

Zone Issues

Cincinnati's offense stalled throughout the game in the face of EWU's heavy 3-2 zone defense. UC posted a season-low in three-point attempts (21) as EWU played pretty great defense for being in zone that much.

The Bearcats could never break it down enough at the rim to force their opponent into more three-point-friendly looks. UC did not capitalize on the easy points Sunday as they got outscored in the paint 40-38 and shot just 67.7% on free throws.

UC still doesn't have a defined go-to scorer who can break down a multitude of defenses when they are stagnating. It's something to watch for the rest of conference play.

That ended up cutting it against a team outside the top-180 in KenPom but it will go differently in the Big 12. EWU is the best team to face Cincinnati in the early part of this season and they gave Miller and his staff plenty of things to work on with five days until a matchup against Northern Kentucky at home.

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