Baba Miller has big night as Cincinnati fends off Georgia State

Baba Miller scored 24 points and took 11 rebounds and Day Day Thomas added 12 points to lead host Cincinnati to a 74-64 win over Georgia State on Friday.

The Bearcats (2-0) led by nine points at halftime and by 15 three and a half minutes into the second half. Georgia State drew to within 49-44 on Micah Tucker's driving layup with 13:15 to play, but Cincinnati rebuilt its margin to a dozen points and the visitors never got closer than eight the rest of the way.

Miller went 8 of 9 from the floor. Moustapha Thiam added 10 points and nine boards for Cincinnati, which ruled the paint while scoring 36 points in the lane and outrebounding Georgia State 40-35.

Jelani Hamilton led all scorers with 26 points and Joah Chappelle had 10 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Panthers (0-2), who shot just 36.8% from the floor but stayed within shouting distance by making 16 of their 18 free throws.

The Panthers started out hot, forging a six-point lead on two separate occasions before Cincinnati used a 13-0 run capped by a driving layup by Sencire Harris to leapfrog to a 19-12 advantage at the 12:25 mark of the first half.

The Bearcats were up 27-20 when Thiam converted a hook shot with 6:39 left in the half, but Georgia State scored the next six points to pull to within one.

Cincinnati finished the half with a 12-4 surge, with the half's last basket coming on a dunk by Thiam with 4 seconds remaining that granted the Bearcats a 39-30 lead at the break.

Hamilton's 13 points before halftime led all scorers; six of his points came from the free-throw line. Cincinnati was paced by Harris' nine points over the first 20 minutes of play as the Bearcats limited Georgia State to 29.4% shooting in the half.

The Panthers' Malachi Brown scored the first points of the second half before Cincinnati reeled off the next seven, with Miller covering a three-point play and then a driving layup that put the hosts up 46-32.

--Field Level Media