No. 18 Cincinnati will take its unbeaten record on the road for the first time to visit Northern Kentucky on Tuesday night in Highland Heights, Ky.
The Bearcats (3-0) are coming off their third straight blowout win to open the season, an 86-49 rout of Nicholls on Friday night. Northern Kentucky (0-3) is in search of its first win after losing 61-59 to Nicholls one night earlier on its home court.
Simas Lukosius and Jizzle James each scored 19 points to lead the Bearcats. James had four of Cincinnati’s 18 assists and played tight defense in 28 minutes to offset his four turnovers.
“I see where I wasn’t in my groove in the first half,” James said. “Going to halftime talking with my coaches, I had to learn from it, then come out and see the game and see where I can split the defense, and it just opened up opportunities all game. I think I played better in the second half. I can say that. So (I’m) trying to get that to where I do it all game and just make it consistent.”
Lukosius is off to a blazing start from beyond the arc, converting 5 of 7 3-pointers Friday night and improving to 10-of-14 for the season. As a team, Cincinnati drained 11 of 27 shots from long distance in the runaway win.
“He hasn’t been forcing them, and I think he’s taking the right shots,” Cincinnati coach Wes Miller said of Lukosius. “I believe you have to give credit to the other guys, as well, because the ball is popping around. You look down … and we have 18 assists. The ball is moving around, and there are a lot of other good players on the floor as well. Simas is not going to shoot 80 percent this year, because nobody’s ever done that. I want him to do that but that won’t happen. He is going to have a great year, because he’s a really good player, and he continues to improve.”
Cincinnati shot 33-of-61 (54.1 percent) from the field while holding Nicholls to just 21-of-69 (30.4 percent) from the floor. Texas transfer Dillon Mitchell continues to make an impact for his new team in Cincinnati, scoring 12 points in 24 minutes while grabbing nine rebounds.
The Norse of Northern Kentucky rallied from a 19-point first-half deficit on Thursday night to take a five-point lead with 2:41 remaining on a dunk by Keeyan Itejere. But the Norse were outscored 8-1 to end the game, including a layup at the buzzer that kept them winless on the season.
Trey Robinson led NKU in scoring with 19, thanks to a huge second half. Robinson took over early in the final 20 minutes, scoring nine in a row at one point as part of his 15 in the second half. Robinson also had seven rebounds, four assists, three blocked shots and a steal.
Sam Vinson had a team-leading seven assists, eight rebounds and three steals to lead NKU, which was outrebounded 57-33 in the loss to Nicholls.
The series between Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky has been dubbed the “River Rumble” as the two schools are separated by just five miles across the Ohio River.
Two years ago, Northern Kentucky pulled off a stunning upset when they beat the heavily-favored Bearcats at home, 64-51. Vinson scored 15 points and had three assists in 28 minutes that night while Robinson scored five points and dished out three assists in 20 minutes.
