Winners and Losers from Cincinnati's 68-59 loss to No. 10 Iowa State

Iowa State's tenacious defense put Cincinnati in a cyclone after forcing UC's most turnovers in a game dating back to 2006.

Author:
Neil Meyer
Updated:
Feb 14, 2024 7:18 AM EST

In this story:

Cincinnati Bearcats

CINCINNATI — The frustrations are evident for Cincinnati after another home loss in the Big 12. UC dropped a crucial game on Tuesday 68-59 to Iowa State.

Head coach Wes Miller declared they will figure it out.

"I'm sorry I'm just in a bad mood guys," Miller said apologizing to the media. "I hate losing. I hate it. So I'm not mad. You guys are doing your jobs. I don't mean to be a prick, I can't help it. It's nobody's fault. I hate losing. We are going to figure it out. This team is going to figure it out."

Winners

It is safe to say that Bearcats point guard Jizzle James looked like arguably the best player on the court Tuesday. The true freshman was everywhere tonight for the Bearcats, as his impact in this game was truly the reason the Bearcats were able to fight near the very end, despite a season-high 25 turnovers as a team.

James made an immediate impact in the opening minutes of this one and never looked back James knocked down his first two field goal attempts of the night, which happened to be two huge three-pointers in the first half. The freshman led the Bearcats second half comeback effort as 10 of his 16 points came in the second half.

James finished with a game-high 16 points, and five rebounds on a very efficient 60% clip while playing in a career-high 25 minutes which breaks his career high of 23 vs Merrimack earlier this season. 12 of his 16 points came from behind the arch, which was a new career high with four made three-pointers.

Tamin Lipsey was giving the Bearcats some problems in the first half after scoring nine straight for Iowa State at one point. But James made Lipsey's life pretty difficult in the second half, holding him to just six points on 2-of-8 shooting across the final 20 minutes, despite nine first-half points on a near-perfect 3-4 shooting.

Dan Skillings was also a huge bright spot for the Bearcats as he recorded his second double-double this campaign with a 13-point, 11-rebound performance. The sophomore, along with James, provided a huge spark in the second half, where he finished with 10 points and six rebounds in a time the Bearcats needed it the most after an Iowa State run put the Bearcat in treading waters, in a game that looked like it could have quickly got out of hand.

Losers

Day-Day Thomas had an off night for the Bearcats where he finished with just four points on 2-of-5 shooting over 15 minutes of play. However, Iowa State's gritty and physical guards didn't make it easy for the junior point guard as he recorded a game-high six turnovers, resulting in James seeing increased minutes down the stretch this evening.

However, people have to remember, that Thomas is still in his first season at the Division I level, and this is the best conference in all of college basketball. As Miller noted in his post-game press conference, they have the right to guys at the point guard position, but they only have two-point guards while some teams across college basketball have four to five guards.

Viktor Lakhin played just nine minutes tonight, which is a season-low as the Russian big man is still looking to regain his confidence after a rough two weeks. Lakhin did get the start tonight for the Bearcats again, as Miller keeps giving him earned chances to work back into a major rotation piece.

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