Three Man Weave: Cincinnati's Shooting Goes Ice-Cold in 61-58 Loss to Temple

The Bearcats hot outside-shooting didn't travel to the city of brotherly love.

Author:
Russ Heltman
Jan 26, 2022 7:40 AM EST

CINCINNATI — Temple (11-6, 4-2) exorcised some demons at home against the Cincinnati Bearcats (14-6, 4-3) in a tough 61-58 win. UC couldn't find any consistency shooting the ball after leading by 12 going into half (17.2% shooting in the second half).

"When you shoot 17% in the second half," Wes Miller said postgame. "It's gonna be hard to win on the road. I think there is more to it than missing shots and poor execution; in the first half, we played great defense, and it helped us get baskets. We didn't do any of that in the second half."

Temple punished the Bearcats at the foul line (20-of-32) and gritted through an ugly shooting performance on both sides. It was the Owls first win against Cincinnati in their past 10 games.

David Dejulius nearly stole the game by himself to close things, but Damian Dunn had other plans. Here is the Three Man Weave on another close affair between the Owls and Bearcats.

Shotmaking Stays In Clifton

After starting the AAC slate ranked fourth in field goal percentage (43.2%), Cincinnati cratered in this road test. No one could muster many easy baskets as each side matched on-ball intensity.

Mason Madsen and Abdul Ado were the only players to post an effective field goal rate over 45%. It was just one of those nights for Cincinnati where they couldn't slam the door shut on offense. The three-point shot especially disappeared.

Cincinnati shot 7-of-33 from deep and made just 1-of-14 second-half attempts. The Bearcats can dominate when jump shots are falling, and the guards are cooking, but they haven't established a consistent interior presence all season, and it left them with nothing to rely on in that frigid second half.

David Dejulius (15 points, four rebounds) showed veteran savvy to draw multiple three-shot fouls in the game's waning moments, but a miss on his final shot of the game pushed him to 4-of-15 for the contest.

"No I just missed it," Dejulius said about his floater that couldn't find twine in the final moments. "It stings a little bit because I've been in the gym so much working on creating space and really working on my shot and sticking the landing, and I didn't really think about it until I got into the locker room. I feel like my floater was something that I maybe neglected in my workouts.

"So that kinda sucks when you feel like you didn't prepare. So I don't think I deserved to make that shot, but I'll get back in the gym."

Meanwhile, Mike Saunders, Jeremiah Davenport, and Mika Adams-Woods combined to go 6-of-27 from the field and 3-of-16 from deep. It's hard to win road games shooting 29.4% from the field while getting outscored 28-20 in the paint. Cincinnati couldn't overcome either in Philly.

Free Throw Woes

The Owls brought a nasty, schoolyard style to this game, and it earned them the victory. A big part of that was their commitment to contact, earning 32 shots at the line. The game could've wrapped up sooner if they shot their conference average at the line coming in (71.6%).

Fans loudly debated the officiating throughout the game on social media, but it was questionable on both sides. UC wasn't unfairly targeted in this game; it just never matched the intensity Temple brought out of halftime.

The Bearcats secured just five offensive rebounds on 24 missed shots in the second half (20.8%), a far cry from their 79th-ranking nationally in that statistic coming in (31.7%). Temple found timely and-ones throughout the night and worked hard behind Damian Dunn (game-high 18 points, six rebounds, 7-of-9 FT) and Jeremiah Williams (15 points, five rebounds, 4-of-6 FT).

The former took over in crunch time—as he has consistently at the start of conference play. Dunn shot 4-of-9 in the second half, including the go-ahead bucket and foul shot in the final minutes.

Newman III Keeps Things Connected

John Newman III (nine points, season-high nine rebounds) suffered a scary knee injury against Tulsa, but he shook it off quickly against Temple.

Newman was all over the floor against the Owls, diving for loose balls, putting his body on the line, and doing everything he can on the margins for Cincinnati.

"Yeah, I thought his offensive rebounding in the first half was such a key to the game," Miller said about Newman. "One possession guys, and you sit here, and you're down in the dumps. There's some really good things...some of the things John Newman did tonight were excellent. So I'm not going to sit here and say it was all bad."

The veteran ended up leading Cincinnati in plus-minus for the game (plus-five) and efficiency (13). Newman raised his level of play on the road while nearly snagging enough loose balls and rebounds to give Cincinnati the result.

All in all, UC didn't make enough shots. Defense is the rock-solid aspect of this team that will keep them in nearly every game, but second-half shots need to fall more than 17.2% of the time to capture road wins.

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