Bearcats Beat: Bearcats Show Their True Potential In 89-54 Rout Of Georgia Tech As Aziz Bandaogo Makes Big First Impression

CINCINNATI — This might just be the start of something big – really big – for the Cincinnati Bearcats.

Viktor Lakhin drained his first four 3-point attempts and finished with a team-leading 15 points to pace the unbeaten Bearcats (5-0) to a 89-54 rout of visiting Georgia Tech (2-2) Wednesday night.

Lakhin added six rebounds while John Newman III added 12 and CJ Fredrick scored 11 for the Bearcats, who blew open the game with a 30-2 run in the second half. UC has won all five games on its home court to start the season.

Cincinnati finished 14-of-34 from three-point range and outscored Georgia Tech 49-22 in the second half. The Yellow Jackets were just 5-of-15 from beyond the arc.

With 17:14 remaining in the first half, many in the near-capacity crowd of 11,756 rose to their feet to cheer the debut of Aziz Bandaogo, the seven-foot transfer from Utah Valley University who was cleared to play Monday by the NCAA.

Bandaogo made an immediate impact when he blocked an attempted layup by Miles Kelly, who drove to the basket.

Less than two minutes later, Bandaogo made his mark on the offensive side with a two-handed dunk, giving him two of his five first-half points.

“I said to the guys in the locker room – and I try not to play mind games with kids or young people – I try to just be very honest with them,” Miller told me. “The first thing that I said to him is, that should make you feel like you have a chance to be a really good basketball team because we put some things together. And so I think number one gets some confidence for that. And then number two, let’s realize that we have a long way to go and we have a lot of room to improve. Let’s enjoy this till midnight and then we’ll wake up tomorrow.”

The Bearcats entered the night No. 35 in the so-called KenPom Rankings but just seventh among the teams inside the Big XII. This is a stark reminder of the competition that awaits them once the conference season begins on Jan. 6.

“Let’s double down because we can get even better, better and better,” Miller said. “And with what’s ahead of us, we know there’s gonna be some really, really tough days tough road and we’re gonna have competing against the best programs in the country. So let’s understand and get some confidence from things we did well, and then let’s double down on the things that you’ve been working on to continue to improve.”

Kowacie Reeves led Georgia Tech with 14 points while Miles Kelly added 12 for the Yellow Jackets, who lost their first road game of the season.

Bandaogo wasn’t the only native of Senegal making his season debut. Baye Ndongo, a 6-9 freshman, missed Georgia Tech’s first three games with a right hand injury.

Ndongo and Bandaogo spent much of the first half battling each other when they were on the court.

While Ndongo returned, the Yellow Jackets were still without their second-leading scorer from last season. Lance Terry injured his right calf in preseason and has missed all four Georgia Tech games.

Georgia Tech cut Cincinnati’s lead to two, 23-21, on a pair of Kowacie Reeves free throws. But UC closed the half on a 17-11, thanks in part to Viktor Lakhin, who drained all four of his 3-point attempts.

Cincinnati scored the first eight points of the second half and then used a 16-0 run to open a 69-35 lead. The run was sparked by Lakhin three bookended by a pair of triples from Fredrick.

After a layup from Kelly ended the 16-point surge with 13:43 left, UC scored the next 14 points for a 41-point lead at 78-37.

“That was fun tonight,” Miller said. “I told the guys in the locker room that was really fun there in the second half. I thought they did some things in the first half to just kind of stagnate the game and frustrate us a little bit. I thought we handled it well. I did. They were playing way back and way off of us. We had a scrimmage against Indiana State early in the preseason and they kind of played us like that.

“We struggled with it, and we addressed it after that. That’s why those closed-door scrimmages are so valuable. I thought we were much more prepared even though we didn’t know that’s exactly how they were going to play us. We were much more prepared for how to deal with it because we had been through that once this year and dealt with it already. So, I thought we handled it pretty well. Some of those early wide-open shots don’t go in and sometimes when you get guarded like that it can kind of snowball, it didn’t tonight, and then all of a sudden, the lid comes off the basket. We made some shots, but I thought that run in the second half was fun.”