Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Escapes Wild Finish 74-72 Over Kansas State

Cincinnati took on KSU for the second time ever on Saturday.

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats jammed home a victory over Kansas State on Saturday night 74-72 to keep any minuscule at-large NCAA Tournament chances alive over the final couple weeks of the season.

Simas Lukošius (13 points, four assists) did what he's done multiple times this season to keep the Bearcats season alive, cashing a stone-cold triple down 72-71 with nine seconds left. A statement shot in a must-win game to keep the season hopes alive for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.

Day Day Thomas (14 points, five assists) and John Newman III (18 points, four rebounds, three assists) played their best game as a backcourt duo together. They posted some electric moments as UC hounded KSU defensively and played like a team that has to treat each game the rest of the season like an elimination outing.

UC is now 2-0 all-time against Kansas State with the crucial Quad 2 win.

Disciplined Dance

Cincinnati did a great job taking care of the basketball on Saturday, as UC won the turnover battle 18-6 in what was a huge game factor. It tied for the fewest UC turnovers in a game this season. Their defense helped them take care of the ball. Those KSU turnovers led to easy fastbreak setups on the other end.

The Bearcats' guards were pretty sound with the ball, and the bigs were even better as they didn't waste good entry passes throughout the contest. Thomas shot the ball better than he normally has of late and was judicious with his ball decisions. He's now posted a notable two-straight outing with five-plus assists.

Four different Bearcats scored in double-figures across a balanced offensive night.

On the flip side Arthur Kaluma (seven points, 2-of-11 shooting), was out of sorts all game with five turnovers and a rough shooting day. He's a huge part of successful KSU offense and Cincinnati made sure to limit him with nasty on-ball defense. It didn't stop there as that patented man-to-man look from Miller forced the turnovers and kept from Tylor Perry (26 points, 7-of-10 shooting) from owning the evening completely.

John Newman III. Back.

Cincinnati needed someone to start popping back to life in the back court and Newman helped answer that call with his most points since the win over UCF in January.

Newman had to be dealing with an ailment sustained over the last few weeks because he showed this throughout most of the season before the swoon. Well, that ended Saturday as he did a fantastic job cutting and dicing up the interior KSU defense while hitting some timely jump shots along the way.

It was a much-needed pop as Cincinnati's wing/guard options were down two options in CJ Fredrick (hamstring) and Dan Skillings Jr. (hip). Newman led the team in game efficiency and looks like he may be ready to string together some fantastic efforts to close his college career.

Foul Happy

UC's biggest issue on Saturday was the wild contact at times on defense. the refs weren't great in this one by any means, but UC did get a little reckless and it led to a 25-8 free throw attempt disparity.

The charity stripe is the only reason KSU really stayed in the game at all as their offense couldn't find many easy looks around the rim and didn't get to chuck threes at a high volume like they have most of the season. Cincinnati did a great job closing out on shooters, but it led to some tough rotations that the Wildcats turned into fouls.

Without those fouls, UC would've won by double digits. Now they prepare for another must-win game on the road against Oklahoma.

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