Aziz Bandaogo led No. 19 Cincinnati with 15 points as the host Bearcats dominated in the paint in an 84-49 win against Grambling State on Sunday.
Dillon Mitchell scored 13 points and pulled down seven rebounds and Day Day Thomas added 12 points for the Bearcats (10-1).
Ernest Ross scored a game-high 16 points for Grambling State (2-10). Mikale Stevenson added 11 points, six rebounds and seven assists for the Tigers.
Cincinnati had a 40-26 advantage on points scored in the paint. The Bearcats had nine dunks and eight layups.
The tone was set early for the Bearcats when a Mitchell steal led to a lefty windmill jam that gave the Bearcats a 7-2 lead.
Bandaogo followed Mitchell’s flashy jam with a reverse alley-oop slam. It was the first of consecutive alley-oop dunks for Bandaogo and capped a 9-0 run.
After a Grambling State free throw, the Bearcats’ reeled off a 6-0 rally. Dan Skillings Jr. drove the lane and shoveled a no-look pass to Simas Lukosius for a layup as Cincinnati went up 17-3 at the 14:11 mark of the first half.
A PJ Edwards pass over the top of the Cincinnati defense found Ross, whose layup snapped the Bearcats’ surge.
Grambling State trailed by 22 when Jizzle James connected on a short-range jumper to give Cincinnati a 37-15 lead with 2:58 left in the first half. But the Tigers rallied and closed the half on a 9-0 run. An Edwards layup in the final seconds cut the Cincinnati lead to 37-24 at halftime.
Another lob pass to Bandaogo for a dunk opened the second half for the Bearcats. There was some fight in the visitors, though, as Louis Hutchison went on a personal 5-0 run for the Tigers with a jumper and a deep 3-pointer to cut the Bearcats’ lead to 41-29. It was the closest Grambling State got the rest of the game.
Cincinnati quickly reeled off an 11-0 run that opened up with consecutive 3-pointers by Lukosius, James and Skillings and was punctuated by Mitchell’s dunk for a 52-29 Cincinnati lead.
–Field Level Media
