Cincinnati 'still learning,' hopes to take another step vs. E. Michigan

Field Level Media|published: Tue 25th November, 18:43 2025

Cincinnati Bearcats center Moustapha Thiam (52) dunks in the first half of the NCAA men’s basketball game between the Cincinnati Bearcats and the NJIT Highlanders at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025.

In another pre-Thanksgiving tune-up, Cincinnati will bid to continue its winning ways Wednesday night when it hosts Mid-American Conference foe Eastern Michigan.

On Monday, the Bearcats shot nearly 50% and scored 33 points off 20 turnovers in a 94-67 win over NJIT.

Cincinnati (5-1) is playing its third game in six days and could be without star big man Baba Miller for a second straight contest after injuring his hip during last Friday's loss to No. 6 Louisville.

In Monday's win, another big, Moustapha Thiam, picked up the slack for Miller with 15 points and 10 rebounds while Shon Abaev scored a game-high 20 points with a career-best eight rebounds.

"The thing I like is that we are having high assist numbers, which means we are sharing the ball and making good decisions," said Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller. "There are 24 assists. I think we had 18 or 19 assists Friday night, so I like that. I'm glad we got to get some extended minutes for some guys that haven't gotten to get them.

"I really challenged them to play Bearcat basketball and to play the right way. I think we are still learning what that means, but there were some moments tonight that you could see that happening, and that's the good stuff."

Eastern Michigan (3-3) is coming off an ugly 87-46 road loss to Louisville on Monday night.

The lone bright spot was Mohammad Habhab, who recorded his fifth double-double in six games this season. The redshirt freshman forward had 12 points and 11 rebounds in the loss while Carlos Hart added 11 points, including 9-of-10 from the free throw line.

Habhab leads Eastern Michigan with 15.3 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game.

"He's got size, he can play inside, he can really pass the ball, he's unselfish and he's a force," said Eagles coach Stan Heath after Habhab had a 24-point triple-double in a win against Oakland. "For a young guy, a freshman who didn't play at all last year, you know he's talented but you don't know when it's gonna click and it's already clicked early."

Hart is the next leading scorer, averaging 14.2 ppg, while Addison Patterson is the only other scorer in double figures, scoring 12.7 ppg.

--Field Level Media