Three Man Weave: Hot Shooting Powers Cincinnati Past BYU 84-66

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats kept their hot shooting rolling (58.6% overall) on Saturday night to get revenge over BYU 84-66 and keep the season alive.

Jizzle James (24 points, three assists) and Day Day Thomas (15 points, four assists) were unconscious, helping power a conference-season-high 10-20 mark from deep and the team's first back-to-back instance of 80-plus points since late November.

James wowed in the right environment as multiple NBA scouts saw him set the season-high point total by any Bearcat in 2024-25. Cincinnati is now 3-2 against BYU since the 1949-50 season and is set for another Utah-based revenge spot against the Utes on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.

Second-Half Statement

Cincinnati didn't let a nasty four-point play by BYU star Egor Demin (12 points, two assists) disparage their winning chances entering halftime. The Bearcats owned the second half going on 13-2 and 18-0 runs at points to live another day in their pursuit of an NCAA Tournament berth.

James and Thomas drove the train and the whole defense banded together to go from 59% shooting allowed in the first half to 33.3% in the second. Josh Reed (season-high 12 points, two rebounds) had an out-of-nowhere offensive night to help guide the path, and UC buckled in on defense much tighter to leave no doubt who the better team was on Saturday night.

Both teams rolled out double-digit minutes for eight players, but UC was much fresher into that second frame and it showed. BYU air-balled multiple shots and just never attacked the paint as they did in the first half (22 points in the first half, just six in second). Cincinnati did a great job not fouling throughout the whole game, leaving little easy levers for BYU to pull on in a comeback attempt.

Cincinnati has now played four consistent halves of offense in a row for the first time in months. Maybe it's enough momentum to keep stacking all the wins they need down the latter portion of conference play.

Jizzle Jumper

James was shooting a horrendous 25% from deep entering tonight's game—that flipped in a massive way at home. He went 4-4 from deep to start and ended up 6-8 from outside.

All kinds of triples were falling especially the most difficult off-dribble looks. He looked confident in his motion and finally got some good variance against a lacking BYU outside defense (34.6% allowed this season). Cincinnati hit it's most threes in a game since Nov. 27 and it was a big reason they kept pace with one of the top-20 offenses in the nation.

James and Thomas led all UC players with a 19 efficiency mark and he paired well again with Day Day Thomas as Cincinnati's main source of offense, just like Wednesday night. The defense wasn't as stellar, with BYU posting a 144 offensive rating while he played, but he finally paired together good offensive games in conference play.

Cincinnati needs that in basically every game over the final eight outings this regular season.

Midrange Maestro

Thomas brought his A-game again on Saturday.

He hit a handful of midrange jump shots to make the Cougars' defensive game plan work against them. BYU forces one of the highest midrange rates in the country on what is normally a very inefficient shot, but Thomas spat in the face of that with a wet jumper.

It's honestly amazing to see from a guy who, entering the week, was shooting less than 36% from the floor. Thomas was 6-6 from the floor up to the 15-minute mark of the second half, and that shot just helped open things up for Cincinnati basically everywhere else. It's rare to see a UC team win a game scoring less than 35 points in the paint (30 total), but the jump shooting carried a great offensive performance.

Cincinnati easily shot its best mark in conference play, on far less volume this game compared to Wednesday due to BYU's slowed-down pace.

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