CINCINNATI — Wes Miller believes his team’s first loss could be a harbinger of good things to come.
The Cincinnati head coach offered some optimism after his Bearcats battled sixth-ranked Louisville, but came up short, 74-64, on Friday night at the Hoops Classic at Heritage Bank Center.
The Cardinals missed their first 10 shots of the game, but took control early in the second half, and were led by senior guard Ryan Conwell, who scored 25 points and made timely 3-pointers over the final 20 minutes. Louisville freshman guard Mikel Brown Jr. added 22 points for the Cardinals who shot 48 percent after the break after making just 26 percent in the first half.
Cincinnati dropped to 4-1 on the season, while Louisville improved to 5-0.
“That’s the sixth ranked team in the country, and a team that a lot of people are picking to win the national championship. And if there’s anything that I take from (the loss), is that this could be a great team,” Miller said. “And we’ve been saying that in press conferences and to the media, and I know how it goes. Everybody thinks it’s damn coach speak, but it’s not. This could be a great basketball team.”
Why does he feel this way?
The way the Bearcats played the first half is probably the biggest reason. They were the more physical, more determined and hungrier team than the super-talented Cardinals, who came to town with Conwell, the former Xavier sharpshooter who was held to eight points in the opening 20 minutes. Pat Kelsey, Louisville’s personable head coach and Cincinnati native who had part of his post-game attention focused on his Elder Panthers losing a 27-7 lead down the street, was certainly impressed with his good friend Wes Miller and the Cincinnati effort on the night.
“It’s hard playing friends, and Wes is a friend. I’ve known him for a long, long time,” Kelsey said. “The first half, they were the aggressor, they were the more physical team. It was battle of two teams that really thrived in transition, and I thought they got the better of us in the first half. We talked so much about transition, rebounding, physicality and toughness, those four things we harped on a lot. I thought we were 0-for-4 on those in the first half. But our guys responded. We came out in the second half, and I like to think we were 4-for-4 in the second half.”
The Bearcats held Louisville without a field goal and raced out to a 15-4 lead seven minutes into the game. Abaev sparked a 12-0 run with a corner three-pointer Louisville fought back in the first half, tying the game, 17-17, with an 11-0 run of its own, which was capped by a layup from guard Adrian Wooley at the eight-minute mark in the first half. A trey from Abaev broke the tie and sparked a 6-0 run that put the Bearcats up 23-17.
Two more triples from Thomas pushed the Bearcats’ lead to 31-25, but, like he would all night, Conwell answered with a triple for Louisville making the score 31-28 two minutes before the break.
“Cincinnati is extremely physical,” Kelsey added. “We like to play in rhythm. We’re a very talented offensive team, and they really disrupted us. They just weren’t letting us go where we wanted to go. They were blowing up every screen. They were just muddying up the game. I thought they were the aggressor on the offensive glass but we ended winning the rebounding battle.”
But college basketball is a 40-minute game and Louisville did precisely what you would expect a national championship contender to do. They went on an early run and then methodically pulled away from an underdog opponent.
The Bearcats were led by senior guard Day Day Thomas and freshman guard Shon Abaev, each with 12 points. Sophomore center Moustapha Thiam finished with 10 points, nine rebounds and three blocks. After Thiam blocked Louisville center Aly Khalifa’s layup attempt at the halftime buzzer, Cincinnati led 32-28 at the break.
However, Louisville took control early in the second half. Conwell, who scored 17 in the second half, sparked an 8-2 run for the Cardinals with a layup and a 3-pointer as Louisville took a 40-37 lead four minutes into the second half.
A 3-pointer from senior guard Kerr Kriisa brought Cincinnati within a point, 44-43, with 12:35 left, but the Cardinals answered right back. Louisville took a 48-43 lead 90 seconds later when Conwell buried his fourth three of the night. A steal by Louisville junior forward Sananda Fru led to a layup by Conwell, which put the Cardinals in front 52-45 and forced Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller to call a timeout with 8:50 left.
A layup from Abaev cut the Cincinnati deficit to six, 61-55, with 4:35 left but Louisville’s star freshman guard of its own, Brown Jr., drilled a 3-pointer on the next Cardinals possession and then immediately stole a pass and dunked to put Louisville in front 66-55 with 3:25 left.
“They beat us to some loose balls to start the second half,” Miller said. “They beat us on the backboards in the second half. Our offense got stagnant in the second half, and when we did call some action, we had some real breakdowns. We struggled to get the ball inside when we were having an advantage down there and really being able to play out of the post, and those things were frustrating, and that allowed Louisville to get the momentum in the game.
“But those things are very controllable and things that we can get to work on. So if we choose to tighten up, I think we can keep improving. So I’m disappointed in the loss. I was I was happy with some of the way that we executed our defensive game plan, especially in the first half, and there was some some breakdowns there in the second half that were again disappointing, but things we can learn from and correct.”
