Cincinnati 94

Western Carolina 63

Cincinnati had 4 players in double figures and were led by a trio of newcomers scoring 18 each to help lead wire-to-wire in Cincinnati on Monday night. 

Arena / Attendance: Fifth Third Arena, Cincinnati, OH. Attendance: 9126. 

Date: 11/3/2025

This game was completely dominated by Cincinnati, as it should have been. The Bearcats wasted no time, jumping out to a lead 30 seconds into the game and never dropping the lead after that. UC led by as much as 33 over the course of the night. 

Who Shined on the Court 

Cincinnati was led by a trio of newcomers who scored 18 each: 

Baba Miller ended with 18/10/1, and only 1 turnover. 

Moustapha Thiam had 18/5/1 and added in 1 steal and 1 block. Unfortunately, he did turn the ball over 5 times to lead the team. 

Shon Abaev, the highly touted freshman had 18/2/1 and turned the ball over twice. This was what the freshman needed to ease into the game. 

Kerr Kriisa led the team in assists with 4, and Day Day Thomas added in 3. 

On Defense, Sincere Harris and Tyler Mckinley added 3 steals a piece. Mckinley also had 2 blocks, which was tied for the team high with Day Day thomas and Halving Dzellat. 

Western Carolina will want to forget this game quickly and move onto their next matchup, however there were some bright spots, notably Cord Standberry, who poured in 23 points on 4-9 from deep on the night! 

WCU as a team rebounded the ball very well and out rebounded the Bearcats 37-36! 

The Tale of the Tape

• Cincinnati: 32-59 (54%)/10-28(36%)/20-30(67%)
• WCU: 23-64 (36%)/9-27 (33%)/8-14(57%)
• Cincinnati won the turnover battle, but both teams were sloppy. UC had 15, WCU had 22. 
• Cincinnati won the battle in the paint, the battle of points off turnovers, the bench battle, and the points in transition game. WCU did, however take the second chance battle tonight. 

A Positive and A Negative

It’s hard to draw large conclusions off f one game, but if this is the kind of effort we’re going to see from the Bearcats, that is a very positive sign out of Clifton. This is what top tier teams do to inferior opponents. 

A positive: Beside the balanced scoring attack, Baba Miller continues to impress me as we move into the season. His double double helped that tonight. I also want to call out the impact that Tyler McKinley’s able to make tonight, mainly on the defensive side of the ball. 

A negative: Cincinnati had 15 turnovers and was out rebounded. Day Day Thomas also had 5 turnovers. Obviously point 1 and 3 are directly related, and I do not expect Day Day to continue that trend, so I’m not necessarily very worried about the turnovers at this time. However, the rebounding aspect is something UC will need to work on, as that is something that the Haynes injury has left them vulnerable to. 

Next Up: 

Cincinnati plays Georgia State on 11/7/25 at 7:00 at 5/3rd arena, catch it on ESPN+! 

Western Carolina is on the road @ Duke on Saturday at 1:30 on the CW network!