Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Hammers Miami 103-76

The Bearcats have now won 15 straight games in the series.

CINCINNATI — The UC Bearcats (7-4) rolled against Miami 103-76 in a shotmaking display. Wes Miller's crew paired sound man-to-man disruption with great shooting to run their longest-tenured rival out of Fifth Third Arena.

Landers Nolley (20 points), Mika Adams-Woods (9 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists), and David DeJulius (22 points, 4 assists) powered the offense as UC dominated the paint (46-28 point advantage).

Cincinnati has now won 15 straight games against Miami a team they've played more times than any other in school history. They shattered the previous single-game field goal percentage record under Wes Miller (63.3 FG%).

The previous high came against Chaminade to open this season (57.8%). It also marks the most points ever scored under Miller.

"There were some really good moments sharing the ball tonight," Miller said. "I want more defensively. I thought there were some good stretches. The collective effort and will for the most part was okay. I want more. These guys showed what they're capable of from a focus, effort, and passion standpoint in the second half against Xavier and it's my job to hold them to that standard every second. So, I want a little more there."

Here's the Three Man Weave on UC's nice bounceback after a tough Crosstown Shootout loss.

Diced Up Defense

© Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports

Miami entered this game with one of the 20-worst defenses in the country and it showed early. Cincinnati blitzed them right away, shooting 58% in the first half, including 11 assists. Adams-Woods took the reins as a consistent point guard in this game and it turned into great results.

"When you got a floor general like that setting the table it gives confidence to the whole team," DeJulius said about his teammate. "Shooey is a four year starter, been involved in some high level games that you can see the experience they're from scoring for himself and more important is his playmaking for the team. When you have a guy like that, it just breeds confidence into the whole team."

The lead assists man on the team had his passing dialed in, posting a 29% assist rate in his minutes. The floor vision and patience were impressive for a team seeking an offensive identity. Adams-Woods has the talent to carry that type of load, we'll just have to see how much he can do it against better competition. 

"He's such a reliable defender," Miller said about Adams-Woods. "He's been steady with the ball. He's now becoming a more effective offensive player like he's creating more action for our team, which takes some pressure off Dave [DeJulius]. So I mean tonight you see it but I think it's he's been fairly consistent here to start the year. And maybe we hadn't talked about that enough and I still think he's scratching the surface.”

A lot of the damage got created by UC's own defense, which forced 17 Miami turnovers and turned them into 26-6 points advantage. The defensive principles Miller has preached in practice all season really shined against Travis Steele's Miami team.

UC is a solid passing team (114th nationally assist per game), but Wednesday took it to a level they are trying to find more often. Jeremiah Davenport even bought into the ball movement with a great hesitation corner pass to Josh Reed for a three.

Great offense like that is contagious.

Efficient Vik

© Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports

Viktor Lakhin (14 points, 2 rebounds) is my favorite Bearcat to watch this season and his efficiency plays a big role in that. Lakhin entered Wednesday 10th nationally in field goal percentage (68%) and kept pace with those leaders.

"He's really grown into a heck of a player," DeJulius said about Lakhin. "That's a testament to all his hard work, his perseverance coming from another country during the COVID and continued to stay at it and now he's he's experiencing some success. And he will continue to get rewarded with that. But you know, that's us feeding him the ball and putting him in spots to be successful, and he's been rewarding us in return."

The Russian made 6-of-7 shots on a night where he went right at Anderson Mirambeaux all game with no fear. That was a fun matchup to watch as Lakhin put his back to the basket multiple times for nice up-and-under moves with a sweet touch.

"Honestly I feel like they're not still doing enough to stop them but if I was the other team I would send more but I guess other teams haven't got that memo yet so we're gonna keep feeding him until somebody gets the memo and if they don't we're gonna keep killing them," Nolley said about defensive attention paid to Lakhin.

The sophomore has been a consistent, calming presence in a frontcourt that desperately needed one. He and Ody Oguama (6 points, 3 rebounds) have formed a nice one-two punch on that front and we saw some life out of Kalu Ezikpe (6 points, 2 rebounds) in the win.

“I just think defensively he's taken a huge step from year one to year two with this program," Miller said about Oguama. "He's making plays on the floor. He's in a good position on the floor. And with that, he's getting increased minutes. And with that comes increased confidence up think all of us are excited by the way that he's playing.”

Ezikpe hadn't played since the 86-60 win against NJIT. After playing 12 minutes against Northern Kentucky, Ezikpe logged 24 total minutes in the ensuing seven games. Any consistent impact from what many thought of as an impact transfer would be a bonus on the season at this point.

Good thing Lakhin has developed into an efficient, rock-solid threat every night.

Mirambeaux Makes His Mark

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Mirambeaux (16 points, 7 rebounds) put his unique frame to good use against Cincinnati. The veteran had a great sense of floor awareness for the RedHawks, cleaning up loose rebounds for easy buckets.

He easily led Miami in efficiency score (19) and was a size mismatch for UC's frontcourt all game. He was also one of the best defenders (not saying much) in the game for Miami. 

Mirambeaux posted a 130.7, the the third-best mark on an awful defensive the team.

Unfortunately for Miami, the forward got too ambitious on a few passes and led all players with 4 turnovers. His post-game can be feast or famine in that since and the RedHawks got the wrong end against their rival.

The burly forward led all players in offensive rebound rate on a night where Miami had little offensive rhythm and even less success on defense. 

Next up for UC is a home matchup against La Salle on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.

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