Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Narrowly Falls to Baylor 62-59

Cincinnati was missing Aziz Bandaogo due to injury on Saturday night.

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Bearcats dropped Saturday's road contest 62-59 to Baylor in a nip/tuck defensive affair. Bearcats forward Dan Skillings (24 points, six rebounds) was fantastic throughout the loss but UC still dropped its first game of his career with him scoring in double figures.

The Bears' defense had a lot to do with it as they flipped from man-to-zone defense at a point in the second half and slowed down the strong UC shooting offense to the tune of 4-of-21 from outside.

The rebounding battle went moot (32-32) as Cincinnati missed Aziz Bandaogo on Saturday. UC is now 1-2 in conference play.

Zone Zeroes In

Baylor flashed to a sound zone defense in the middle of the second half, sparking a 13-2 run and completely flip the story of a game UC was leading for a chunk.

The Bearcats sorely miss a consistent three-point shooter like CJ Fredrick and couldn't find on Saturday night. It allowed Baylor to settle into the zone and force Cincinnati to chuck or find jump-shooting pockets in the middle. That didn't go well.

Cincinnati missed shot after shot and Baylor sparked the run and rebound advantage because of it. It was those few minutes that ultimately decided another really good Big 12 basketball game involving the Bearcats. Without Skillings (158 offensive rating) popping through UC may have been crushed down the stretch (only UC player with an offensive rating over 110).

Skillings Hunts

Cincinnati's biggest advantage entering this game was their rebounding acumen and Skillings sprinkled just enough of that and scoring to help power another strong outing. He scored 12 of the Bearcats final 14 points following the six-minute mark.

The sophomore was the most athletic player on the floor at times in a contest that featured five-star talent. He scoped down loose balls very well and aided the strong perimeter defense that spearheaded Cincinnati's ability to stay in the game.

Skillings posted a steal and matched it with an attacking mentality on the other end. His activity was infectious and impactful at once in an intimidating home environment.

Nobody had a better offensive/defensive rating differential on Cincinnati as he continues to flash a high ceiling every month.

Guard Trio Outlasts

Cincinnati did a great job defending the Bears' elite backcourt but it wasn't quite good enough to pull off the big upset. Ja'Kobe Walter (14 Points), Langston Love (14 points, two rebounds), and RayJ Dennis (11 points, nine assists) all plodded their way to enough production for a win.

Love was a big catalyst in the first half as he hit all of his threes in that frame, while the other two lightning-rod scorers were held to just two threes combined by Cincinnati. Still, Love and Walter combined for 10 free throw attempts to keep the Bearcat defense on its heels.

It ended up putting Viktor Lakhin (seven points, one rebound) on the bench for the final minutes after fouling out. Dennis was a fantastic playmaker in the game, posting nine assists on some much-needed sniper passes against Cincinnati's solid man-to-man defense.

It ended up being enough to beat an undermanned UC team that couldn't spin 11 made three/free throws into a victory.

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