No. 14 Cincinnati expecting tough test from Villanova

The No. 14 Cincinnati Bearcats look to continue their unbeaten start to the season when they travel to Philadelphia Tuesday night for a showdown with the inconsistent Villanova Wildcats. The two teams are taking part in the Big East-Big 12 Battle.

The Bearcats (6-0) are coming off a 77-59 home win over the Alabama State Hornets last Wednesday that has left them unbeaten after six games for a second straight season.

Villanova (4-4) has shown glimpses of their potential in blowout wins over Penn (93-49) and most recently against Rider (72-48) last Wednesday.

But against better competition, Villanova has not been able to sustain second-half leads. They allowed 48 points in the second half and lost a double-digit lead to Maryland, falling 76-75. Villanova also had leads against Columbia and St. Joseph's but lost both games.

The two former Big East rivals are meeting for the first time since 2013, when Cincinnati beat Villanova 68-50 in Cincinnati. It's the 11th meeting between the two schools, with Villanova holding a 6-4 edge.

Defense set the tone as Cincinnati held Alabama State to 30.3 percent from the field and just 23.3 percent from behind the arc.

Cincinnati also out-rebounded the Hornets 52-35. But Cincinnati coach Wes Miller was not pleased with his team's overall effort.

"I have nothing positive to say about the game, about our team," Miller said. "I am very, very disappointed in how we played. I feel bad for people that paid to watch that. There's a standard that this team's been -- they meet that standard pretty damn consistently on a practice standpoint, they've met it in terms of approach. They've met that standard for the most part in all the games that we played.

"We did not meet that standard tonight, and that makes me very angry, or disappointed. So I have nothing positive to say other than we won the game."

The win puts the Bearcats at 38-8 when they keep teams below 40 percent from the field under Miller's tenure. They also have a positive outcome when holding opponents to between 50-59 points under Miller, going 30-2 in those situations.

As for Villanova, they made sure to improve their defensive effort from the lackadaisical try against Maryland, limiting Rider to 20 first-half points and just four 3-pointers over the full 40 minutes in the 72-48 win last Wednesday.

Four Villanova players reached double figures, led by 16 points from grad student Eric Dixon, who didn't have to shoulder the load he did against Maryland when he scored a career-high 38. Nova guard Jhamir Brickus finished with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc.

"I thought we really played well defensively," said Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune. "We got some stops. We started a little slowly shooting the ball, but if we can defend like that we're going to be in a good spot."

When Villanova is playing well, they are aggressive and unpredictable on defense, mixing in a combination of zone defense, three-quarter court pressure and man-to-man defense.

"We have the ability to defend in multiple ways," said Neptune.

--Field Level Media