Winners and Losers From Cincinnati's 83-75 victory over Stetson

Cincinnati is trying to clean up its defense as conference play approaches.

Author:
Neil Meyer
Updated:
Dec 23, 2023 7:44 PM EST

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats improved to 10-2 on the season following an 83-75 victory over Stetson on Friday night.

A game that was a lot closer than many expected as Simas Lukošius (shoulder), and Aziz Bandaogo (back) were both unavailable for the Bearcats. Bandaogo is still nursing a back injury sustained in the Dayton game, while Lukošius is dealing with a shoulder injury that was reaggravated at the end of practice on Thursday.

A shoulder injury stemmed from being hit by a car on campus a couple of weeks ago.

Winners

Dan Skillings: Skillings had a career day for the Bearcats after finishing with a new career-high 29 points and 10 rebounds on 11-of-14 shooting, (78%). This was the most points by a Bearcat in a double-double since Troy Caupain achieved such a feat back in 2016.

Skillings saw significant opportunity with Lukosius out, the sophomore was going to see more minutes than usual, and he took that opportunity and ran with it. Skillings was not only able to use his height and physicality to get downhill and attack the basket with ease but also to clean up the glass as he had about four or five easy putbacks, something that he said Coach Wes Miller made a huge point of emphasis on for this matchup.

For Skillings though, you could feel the spark after he came away with a huge block late in the shot clock that forced a Stetson turnover early in the first half. Then came down and buried his first six field goal attempts, finishing the first half with 16 points on 6-6 shooting, (4-4 from deep). You could instantly see that Skillings was playing loose and letting the game come to him, which is something he has tried to force in recent games.

"We need some guys to emerge," said Wes Miller. "Anybody who watches our team knows that Dan Skillings is capable of it. His talent is obvious. For Dan, it has to start defensively, and I thought he did that tonight for the first time in a while. You look down and see he is just scoring the hell out of it. He is a natural scorer, and tonight he played hard. He can be a great defender for us, we need that mentality from Dan."

Jamille Reynolds: Reynolds has started to find his footing over the last week after recording his second straight game in double figures after a dominant performance on Friday night. Reynolds finished the night with 13 points and four rebounds, on 5-of-7 shooting. Stetson couldn't handle the Bearcats center as he continued showing why he was such a big-time target for Wes Miller and the Bearcats this offseason.

"The team knows what I am capable of, they saw it all summer. The whole team knows who I am and what I can do. I'm a big-time post player and I feel like I showed that to everyone tonight."

Reynolds was not only able to score the ball, but he was also affected the game in many other ways, as his passing abilities allowed some things to open up for the Bearcats. Wes Miller mentioned in his postgame press conference how he was trying to find ways to get Reynolds and Viktor Lakhin on the court together due to their incredible passing abilities and mentioned how those two could be a phenomenal group when on the court together.

Reynolds also displayed his three-point shooting abilities, something that Wes Miller said caught the staff by surprise during the offseason.

Something that Reynolds would like to continue to display throughout the season as he starts to flash his skillset as of late. "I wouldn't say that I have been hunting the three balls down, but don't leave me open." joked Reynolds.

Losers

Ody Oguama

The big man got the start for the second straight game with Aziz Bandaogo nursing the back injury, but he only played 11 minutes in the Bearcats win on Friday night. Oguama finished with zero points, and two rebounds on 0-2 shooting. Oguama had a huge opportunity to spark some momentum early in the second half but missed a wide-open dunk off an inbounds play.

Oguama has seen his minutes decrease since Aziz Bandaogo and Jamille Reynolds have been added back to the fold over the last few weeks. However, Oguama provides a huge boost of energy anytime he is on the court, for those who remember he compared himself to the Energizer Bunny last season.

Oguama played 22 minutes vs Merrimack but played just 7 minutes vs Dayton and 11 minutes vs Stetson. You can see that Oguama is starting to slide down the back half of the rotation for the Bearcats. Although he has provided a great spark on the defensive end this season, it just appears that Oguama is a little timid when the ball is in his hands on the offensive end, and we have seen that quite a bit over the last few games as he averages just four points per game.

The Bearcats knew the rotation was going to slim out, but depending on how long Bandaogo is out for and the emergence of Jamille Reynolds it was a matter of time until someone's minutes slashed in the front court. Oguama has just appeared to be the odd man out as of late, but with the status of Bandaogo still to be determined, it is something to keep an eye on heading into Big 12 conference play.

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