CINCINNATI – Wes Miller wants good vibes only – at least after wins.
Yes, his team committed 24 turnovers Tuesday night. Yes, they allowed Dayton to close within two points in the second half after building an 18-point first half lead. The good, bad and ugly of a 74-62 win over Dayton Tuesday at a raucous Fifth Third Arena can be saved for film review the day after.
The Cincinnati coach, instead, wanted to appreciate the effort of his team to hold off the Flyers and remain perfect on the young season.
Led by the relentless defense of Day Day Thomas on Dayton star Javon Bennett, the Bearcats’ defense held the Flyers to 32.3% (20-of-62) shooting from the field, 7.7% (2-of-26) from behind the arc, and dominated the glass with a 43-33 edge in rebounding. Thomas wasn’t just great on defense, he led an offense that was efficient when it needed to be in spite of the 24 turnovers.
Thomas poured in a season-best 20 points, shooting a perfect 12-of-12 from the charity stripe, while freshman Shon Abaev added 14. Amael L’Etang led Dayton with 14.
“I don’t have words for the value, because If I try to talk about Day Day’s value with a couple sentences, I won’t do it justice,” Miller said. “He’s the heart and soul of our group, and I think you guys all know that. I thought he was terrific. That was a fun matchup to watch those two go at it a little bit. And I thought he was terrific. He got beat in the middle one time and fouled there late. But outside of that, I thought he was terrific.”
With 9:32 remaining, Dayton began to claw back in the second half, trimming Cincinnati’s lead to just two after an 8-0 run made it 48-46. But the Bearcats quickly answered with a 12-2 burst, highlighted by a Kerr Kriisa 3-pointer and a Baba Miller dunk, to push the lead back to 60-48 and send Fifth Third Arena into a frenzy.
“I told the guys in the locker room that will go in the book one day – to turn it over 24 times and win,” Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller said. “This may sound crazy, but those are the best wins. Sometimes the best wins are when you can’t make a shot, you can’t throw it in the ocean, and you still find a way. One time, years and years ago, we coached a team, we gave up 20, I think it was 24 made threes, 16 made threes in the first half, and we still won the game. I think when you can overcome some things like that, the character piece is the part you’re most proud of, and those are the ones you remember the most. But I’m really pleased that we won.”
The Bearcats are going to want to get out and run the ball at every chance but that comes with a price, especially early in the season.
“This is exactly why most teams only talk about running in recruiting. I mean everybody says they run in recruiting, I mean everybody says we’re going to play fast, and then they talk about it in the summer and their practices, and maybe a little bit into the fall, but when you get to it and it gets a little wacky out there, you want to kind of get back in control. And if we’re ever going to be the kind of running team that I think we’re going to be, we have to play through some stuM. Now all these turnovers weren’t because of our pace of play. Some of them were breaking the press, some of them were footwork turnovers, some of them were casual turnovers. The other thing is, number one, nobody’s going to work on getting better more than I am after I get out of this press conference.
“But number two, we won. So let’s talk about winning too. Let’s not just talk about everything we didn’t do well. We just beat Dayton at home with a new team, and the team is trying to figure out how to get better. So, I’m not going to let you guys make it negative. We might get negative in the film tomorrow a little bit, but this should be about the fact that we won. First and foremost, we won the damn game, and that’s what matters.”
Threes from Abaev and Kriisa kick-started the Bearcats as Cincinnati jumped out to a 17-4 lead in the first six minutes, forcing four turnovers and limiting the Flyers to 1-of-8 from the field to start the game. The Bearcats continued to keep the Flyers at a distance throughout the half before Dayton, which took advantage of 14 first-half turnovers, used an 8-0 run to trim the Cincinnati lead to 29-22 with 1:11 remaining.
It was Kriisa who took time to appreciate what Thomas offered the Bearcats Tuesday, and he had a hint that something special was coming earlier in the day at shootaround.
“I actually want to share that story, which was very eye-opening to me,” Kriisa began. “It was two hours before our shootaround and Day Day came to the locker room full sweat, working out. And I’m like, ‘Damn like, you gotta go for 30 today, right?’ And his first response was like, ‘Nah, I gotta lock Javon Bennett down.’ I was like, ‘Oh, okay, my bad.’ Usually when I would say something like that, then the response would be, ‘Yeah, I’ll go for 30.’ So I think that just shows how nobody thinks about themselves here. We got a really good group who who just values winning so much and just make winning plays.”
“I think our whole team is that way. I think our whole team is wired that way, nobody backs down from anybody,” Thomas added. “Dayton is a good program. They’re a very respected program. They’re always in there, in their league. They’re top two, three, constantly making it to March Madness. So, we definitely, were very locked in for the game. That’s a quad one or quad two win. So that’s great.”
A 3-pointer from Abaev with 44 seconds remaining stopped the Dayton spurt but, on the ensuing possession, Miller was whistled for a foul and was given a technical after getting tangled up with Dayton’s Jordan Derkack. The Flyers made all four free throws before Cincinnati’s Sencire Harris made the first of two with 11 seconds left as the Bearcats took a 39-26 lead into the break.
Cincinnati played stifling defense in the first half as they held the Flyers to 24.1% (7-for-29) from the field and 7.7% (1-for-13) from behind the arc. The Bearcats held a 12-3 advantage in bench points and a 10-4 lead in fastbreak points but Dayton’s 12-3 edge in points off turnovers, combined with Cincinnati going 6-for-12 at the charity stripe, kept the Flyers in it.
Abaev paced Cincinnati with eight points, while Harris added seven over the first 20 minutes. L’Etang and Javon Bennet led Dayton with seven apiece.
Kriisa drilled a 3-pointer at 15:32 to put Cincinnati in front 39-31, but the Flyers responded with back-to-back dunks, including a one-handed alley-oop dunk from Keonte Jones to bring Dayton within 4, 39-35 with 14 minutes left.
After a pair of free throws from Thomas stretched the Bearcats’ lead to 10, 48-38, with 10 minutes left, Dayton used an 8-0 run to cut the lead 2 on a De’Shayne Montgomery dunk.
Fifth Third Arena erupted after back-to-back baskets by the Bearcats pushed them ahead 52-46, forcing the Flyers into a timeout with 9:06 remaining. Cincinnati increased its advantage to 15 with 3:10 remaining after a 7-2 spurt fueled by an Abaev slam made it 68-53. Consecutive free throws by Thomas sealed the win as the Bearcats closed out the game with a 12-point victory.
Cincinnati concludes its four-game homestand to start the season when it hosts Mount St. Mary’s at 6 p.m. Sunday at Fifth Third Arena.
