Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Continues Road Dominance of South Florida in 70-59 Victory

David Dejulius scored 20-plus points in consecutive games for the first time in his college career.

CINCINNATI — The good times keep rolling in Tampa, Florida. 

The Cincinnati Bearcats (16-7, 6-4) handled South Florida (7-15, 2-8) 70-59 on Wednesday night. It was the team's sixth straight road win over USF.

"I thought we were tough mentally and really together tonight for 40 minutes," Wes Miller Said after the game. "And we talked about a lot the last few days."

David Dejulius (24 points, two assists, two rebounds) was fantastic again in this one and posted 20-plus points in consecutive games for the first time in his career. The Bearcats don't always make jump shots, but when they do, things get very difficult for opponents (10-of-21 from deep).

"Bearcat toughness," Dejulius said about UC's six-straight road wins against USF. "You know Bearcat toughness I feel like when you have Bearcat toughness, you can withstand anything. I feel like we have a history of coming in here and implementing that toughness and having the results we've been having against them."

Let's dive into the Three Down Look on a nice bounce-back performance from Cincinnati.

David Dejulius Bring The Juice

The Bearcats leading scorer this season is raising his play to a higher level at just the right time. Dejulius took advantage of soft coverage stretches in the first half and went to work.

The stepback jumper is proving to be a major weapon when the Bearcats need a bucket. It's tough to quantify just how important Dejulius was in this one. He went 9-of-14 from the field and 4-of-7 from deep.

He tallied by far the highest effective FG% of any player in the game, all while taking the most shots of any player (79%). Those two things rarely go hand in hand.

"I feel great," Dejulius said after the game. "I feel like I'm in the best groove I've been in in my college career. I feel like I'm playing my game, but like I said thanks to Coach Wes and my teammates for putting me in position and allowing me to be myself."

The senior is now averaging 19.3 points over the last six games. He did finish with the second-worst defensive rating on the team, but the offense is king for a Bearcats team that can pick up the defensive slack with other players. Their record bears that out: Cincinnati is 12-1 when they score at least 70 points.

Cincinnati has found a go-to scoring option for the stretch run of this season. Sprinkle in strong outings from Jeremiah Davenport (14 points, six rebounds) and Mike Saunders (10 points, 3-of-4 shooting), and you get a formidable backcourt capable of going on a run when this program needs it most.

Abdul Ado Activated

The Bearcats defense gets a lot of love in these Three Man Weaves, and this one is no different thanks in large part to the work of Abdul Ado (five points, game-high eight rebounds, three blocks, two steals).

The unselfish seven-footer was a menace to USF's interior offensive plan. He redirected drivers all night long and tied his second-highest block total of the season.

The Bulls scored 30 points in the paint, but things would've been far more deadly without Ado. He recorded an absurd 18.6% block rate in 23 minutes and had the best defensive rating of any player in the contest that played 15-plus minutes (89.5). Ado usually brings it on the defensive end but his offensive impact was crucial to hitting that 70 point bellwether.

Ado scored six points (second-most this season) and aggressively sought out contact inside. He made his only FG try on Wednesday and tied a season-high with six free throw attempts. An active Ado on offense means less pressure on the backcourt scorers.

The big fella won't be turning in consistent offensive showings for UC, but Wednesday was the perfect mix of what Ado can bring on the inside when he's playing aggressively.

Mason Madsen needs a shoutout here as well. He led all players in defensive rating (83.6), and USF was stopped on 98% of the possessions he played. "Menace" may need to be his new middle name. The guard hasn't got the outside shot going this year, but it hasn't affected him at all on defense.

He is one of the best on-ball defenders for a team full of good ones, and he reads passing lanes with fantastic anticipation. Logging two steals in nine minutes is no small feat.

A New Bakery Opens In Tampa

The turnovers were baking like pastries at the Yuengling Center on Wednesday night, but Cincinnati's impeccable outside shooting made them less of a headache.

UC turned the ball over a season-high 19 times, the most in a game since its 83-68 loss to Georgia in 2019.

"Even though they went on a run to start the half," Miller said. "I don't think it was because we were flat, but because we were turning the ball over. We missed so many opportunities early because we were giving it to the other team. It wasn't about not being alert or flat, but us being careless with the ball.

"If you get 19 turnovers and win by double-figures on the road, I'll be as happy as can be. Sometimes when you try to get your team to share it more, it takes away their aggressiveness, but I thought we found a good balance. Sometimes you can get careless with the ball, and we have to clean that up."

The load Dejulius carries showed in his season-high four turnovers.

"Yeah we wanted to get out and play fast," Dejulius said. "I take a lot of blame for that. I had some careless turnovers that led to some easy shots for them, and that's unacceptable. But we'll do a better job of taking care of the ball."

Cincinnati handles the rock better than most teams (13.6 turnover rate, 27th nationally), so Wednesday should be more of a blip than a trend, and it felt that way watching the entire game. Cincinnati was hungry for loose balls all night, and plenty of turnovers came on hustle plays.

That being said, USF is the worst three-point shooting team over the last 15 years. Most squads will take better advantage of 19 turnovers and six more shot attempts.

Cincinnati's next opponent—Tulsa—took it on the chin from Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago, but they are a decent shooting team from outside and own the 50th-best forced turnover rate in the country (19.1%). Time to tighten the handles before traveling to Oklahoma.

UC faces Tulsa on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

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