Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Weathers Stetson Storm For 83-75 Win

Cincinnati enters the holiday weekend at 10-2 on the season.

Author:
Russ Heltman
Updated:
Dec 22, 2023 9:30 PM EST

In this story:

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats offense got rolling again on Friday night as Dan Skillings (career-high 29 points, 10 rebounds) found his jump shot groove and continued to help UC clean the glass in a 83-75 win over Stetson.

Skillings posted a perfect 6-of-6 first half as Cincinnati did a good enough job harassing a top-10 scorer in the nation, Jalen Blackmon (32 points, two assists). The Bearcats were missing two players again (Aziz Bandaogo (back) and Simas Lukošius (shoulder)) but still led for a majority of the game as they wind down conference play.

Cincinnati is now 2-1 all-time against the Hatters amidst Skillings's third-career 20-plus point game.

Skillings Scales Up

UC's dynamic young wing player had shot the ball terribly on the season entering this game with a 20% mark from three and 45% true shooting rate (worst among all UC rotation players).

Switch flipped.

It was Skillings's second-highest scoring output of his young UC career, including a career-high four-made threes.

Skillings found the switch on Friday with some confident three-point artistry and his consistent attacking nature around the basket. Cincinnati has so much more breathing room offensively when Skillings can drop in catch-and-shoot jumpers like this. Add in the fact he led the team in rebounds and you get the high marks of what the sophomore brings on his best nights.

He led all players in plus/minus (plus-18) and efficiency (36 eff. score) on Friday as fans eagerly hope it's a spark for the rest of a great season from the growing player.

Blackmon Impact

Cincinnati did a decent job of containing one of the nation's best shooters and overall scorers on Friday, while not allowing other Hatters to capitalize on the attention. Jalen Blackmon (32 points, 10-of-22 shooting, two assists) and the rest of Stetson's strong shooting contingent struggled with UC's length throughout the game.

He still got his points, but UC made sure it didn't come at his normal efficient rate to keep up with their strong offensive night.

Stetson only shot 36% on triples as a team, below their top-55 percentage nationally. UC's man-to-man defense was on point throughout as Blackmon got hounded nearly every second he had hands on the ball. John Newman III did a solid job bringing the pressure to Blackmon for most of the game as he continues guarding top options for UC.

Overall, the elite shooter posted a 5-of-12 tally from downtown, but only four other Stetson triples went down.

The Bearcats have gotten crushed by elite scorers more often than not this season, Blackmon still filled it up, but it didn't lead to a sweat down the stretch.

Reynolds Rollin

Jamille Reynolds (14 points, four rebounds) was a revelation in this game as he played nearly perfect on offense (5-of-7 shooting) with a nasty display in the post and his first triple at Cincinnati.

Reynolds looked like prime Al Jefferson down low, displaying crisp footwork on some towering defenders and he went the old-school way with plenty of finishes off the glass. Big men are fun to watch when they operate precisely like Reynolds did in his third game at UC.

Defensively, the night wasn't so great for Cincinnati's big men as reserve center Trayton Thompson (13 points) posted the second-most points of his career. The whole team also struggled with fouls too consistently against the nation's top free-throw percentage team (81.8% coming in). Stetson shot 24-of-29 from the stripe.

Cincinnati cannot continue to foul good offensive teams like they have this season (85 free throws allowed to Xavier, Stetson, and Dayton).

Reynolds did his part though, and should keep looking better and better as he gets more games under his belt this season.

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