Cincinnati Bearcats guard Mika Adams-Woods (3) passes the ball during the first half of an NCAA men s college basketball game on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati. The Bearcats defeated the Green Wave 88-77 with a crowd of 9,484. Tulane Green Wave At Cincinnati Bearcats Ncaa Basketball Dec 29 — © Stephanie Scarbrough/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

Three Man Weave: UC Controls Pace To Beat Tulane 88-77

Cincinnati is trending in a great direction as conference play ramps up.

Author:
Russ Heltman
Updated:
Dec 30, 2022 7:51 AM EST

In this story:

Cincinnati Bearcats

Tulane Green Wave

CINCINNATI — Another offensive showcase powered the Cincinnati Bearcats (10-4, 1-0) to an 88-77 win over the Tulane Green Wave.

The Bearcats led for nearly the entire game as Tulane chipped away at points, only to get bounced away with great efficiency from Landers Nolley II (23 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists), and Mika Adams-Woods (season-high 18 points, 7-8 FGs, t-season-high 6 assists).

Viktor Lakhin (13 points, 13 rebounds) also recorded his first AAC double-double and sixth of his career. Cincinnati is undefeated in those six games.

It marked the third-straight game where at least four Bearcats scored in double figures.

"Any league win is a good win," Wes Miller said postgame. "That's a really good basketball team. It’s a really good offensive basketball team, and they're confusing and a good defensive basketball team. I thought we did a really nice job early in the game of being in a stance defensively, playing with purpose defensively, really working to make shots difficult, specifically around the basket on the three-point line. And I thought that led to opportunities for us to get out and run and share the ball and you look down and 20 assists that's probably the part that I'm the most proud of. So you love to see the ball popping around like that."

Here's the Three Man Weave on the Bearcats' 19th win over Tulane in its past 22 matchups.

Backcourt Options

Cincinnati Bearcats guard Mika Adams-Woods (3) makes a layup during the first half of an NCAA men s college basketball game on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati. The Bearcats defeated the Green Wave 88-77 with a crowd of 9,484. Tulane Green Wave At Cincinnati Bearcats Ncaa Basketball Dec 29 — © Stephanie Scarbrough/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

Even without Rob Phinisee and John Newman III—Cincinnati's backcourt is still powering victories when necessary. Adams-Woods and Nolley were the engines to start AAC play on Thursday.

The improvement and settling from Adams-Woods haven't always popped this season, but those attributes rarely do. He's having his best season in Clifton, and Thursday was arguably his magnum opus. The guard posted a ridiculous 28-efficiency score and created 21.6 points on just 15.9% usage.

Adam-Woods made the most of all his touches.

"Mika Adams-Woods, I thought he was terrific," Miller said. "A lot of guys were terrific, but I thought he was terrific tonight. They didn't pay quite as much attention to him especially earlier in the game and I thought he did a really nice job of attacking off the bounce and making the right decision with the basketball. And I think everybody looked down and go 7-for-8, 18 points, but I thought his decision-making and aggressiveness helped our team."

All of UC's best two-man to five-man lineups this season have Adams-Woods in the mix.

Nolley was a little less efficient and had a team-high four turnovers, but his shot fake earned three trips to the free throw line, and he was a quick bucket from outside all night (5-of-9 3FGs).

He and David DeJulius (13 points, 5 assists) are the best shooters on the team, but Nolley picked up the weight against Tulane as DeJulius shot just 5-of-13 and 1-of-5 from deep.

"He does what good offensive players do," Miller said about Nolley. "They have a weapon, and they have a way to play off of it. He's such an elite shooter. There's sometimes he shot fakes and I want him to shoot it because every time he shoots it, I think it's going in."

Rebounding Results

Cincinnati Bearcats guard Daniel Skillings (0) makes a layup during the first half of an NCAA men s college basketball game on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati. The Bearcats defeated the Green Wave 88-77 with a crowd of 9,484. Tulane Green Wave At Cincinnati Bearcats Ncaa Basketball Dec 29 — © Stephanie Scarbrough/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

Every postgame press conference this season has been hard to get two minutes into without Miller bringing up the rebounding war. Cincinnati dominated the glass in the first half (22-11) to help guide the win.

Lakhin was a rebounding force like I suspected he'd be against the 314th-ranked rebounding team in the country. Kevin Cross (team-high 22 points, team-high 8 rebounds) is the only Green Wave rotation player over 6-foot-6. He won his fair share of box outs, but UC's length was overwhelming.

Ody Oguama (4 points, 6 rebounds), and Dan Skillings (7 points, 6 rebounds) created a trio with Lakhin that swallowed 25 total rebounds. It didn't last the whole game though, as Miller came away displeased with offensive glass results.

“Six offensive rebounds. We missed 30 shots, and we only get six offensive rebounds," Miller said. "You guys know I'm not going to like that. And that's something we were talking about in every timeout it felt like. We had two of the six offensive rebounds in the first two minutes of the game."

The lagging offensive rebounds hurt a lot less when you shoot 50.8% from the field, which UC pulled off for the sixth time this season.

Jalen Cooked

Dec 29, 2022; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Tulane Green Wave guard Jalen Cook (3) drives to the basket against Cincinnati Bearcats guard Mika Adams-Woods (3) in the second half at Fifth Third Arena. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports — © Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports

Tulane leading-scorer Jalen Cook (15 points, 6-of-14 FGs, 4 TOs) is a reigning first-team All-AAC talent, but he got stifled after halftime. DeJulius put him through hell all game, and he wore down.

The Bearcats' best defensive guard kept Antoine Davis from a huge game last week, using the same quick man-to-man defense on Thursday. Cincinnati's rotations as a team are noticeably sounder over the past month. It showed against a top-35 pace team in Tulane.

Cook posted 13 points in the first half—but completely lost control of his fouling after the break, committing five in the final 20 minutes. Tulane really missed him in the closing minutes.

"I thought him fouling out had a huge outcome on their possessions down the stretch," Miller said about Cook. "There were a couple offensive fouls that David drew beating him to the position. Those are humongous plays for our team."

DeJulius gets all the headlines for his offense, but his defense has been the most glaring improvement from last season. His 2.5 steals per game and 101.6 defensive rating are his best marks since playing at Michigan as a freshman in 2018-19.

Having a strong point-of-attack guard to defend the best perimeter weapons is vital in college basketball.

DDJ is filling that role nicely in 2022 as Cincinnati keeps building momentum toward NCAA Tournament viability.

Next up is Cincinnati's second true road game of the season. They face Temple at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday. The game is available on ESPN via fuboTV—start your free trial here.

Make sure you bookmark All Bearcats for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more.

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