Not much rest for the weary when Cincinnati tackles UCF

Field Level Media|published: Fri 26th January, 19:04 2024

Cincinnati Bearcats forward Jamille Reynolds (13) dunks on Oklahoma Sooners forward Jalon Moore (14) in the first half of the NCAA basketball game between Cincinnati Bearcats and Oklahoma Sooners at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024. credits: Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

Cincinnati finally catches a bit of a break in the Big 12 schedule when it hosts UCF on Saturday night.

Cincinnati (13-6, 2-4) will face its first unranked Big 12 opponent seven games into its first season in the conference.

But that doesn't mean things will be easy for the Bearcats against UCF (12-6, 3-3), a team already with Big 12 wins over then-No. 3 Kansas, Texas and West Virginia.

The Bearcats have lost four of five and head into Saturday having finished a stretch of four games in 10 days with a 74-69 loss Monday at No. 7 Kansas, a game that was tied 35-35 at the half.

"I thought our team has been really resilient these last three weeks," Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller said. "Six straight games against Top 25 teams is a heck of a challenge. You love that, but they haven't gone our way. We're a couple of possessions from being real good over that time."

Dan Skillings Jr. had a team-high 16 points, including a 3-for-6 effort from 3-point range. However, the rest of the team finished 0-for-12 from beyond the arc and committed 16 turnovers in the loss.

The Bearcats were 13-for-32 (40.6 percent) from deep their first two Big 12 games before going 20-for-81 (24.7 percent) in their last four.

Cincinnati big man Jamille Reynolds played his first two years at UCF (2020-22), appearing in 45 games and starting 13, all as a freshman in 2020-21, before transferring to Temple for last season.

UCF built a 13-point halftime lead and posted an impressive 72-59 home court win over West Virginia on Tuesday, giving Johnny Dawkins his 299th career coaching victory.

"I'm really proud of our guys' effort, we got off to a really good start," Dawkins said. "They're a really good basketball team and it showed. You don't want to make a habit of (coming from behind). It was good to see our guys build a lead, but can you manage that lead? That's very important."

Jaylin Sellers, a junior transfer from Ball State, led the Knights with 18 points. Sellers is fourth in the Big 12 with an average of 17.1 points per game.

—Field Level Media