Cincinnati Bearcats win crucial Big 12 game over Kansas State

It's been 35 days since the University of Cincinnati Bearcats basketball team departed Fifth Third Arena with a victory. Saturday UC returned to the winning side with another Big 12 thriller.

Down for the first time in the second half at 72-71, a straightaway bull's-eye 3-pointer from Simas Luko?ius gave UC its sixth Big 12 win, 74-72 over the Kansas State Wildcats.

The shot came just under the 10-second mark after Jerome Tang's Wildcats had come from 13 down in five and a half minutes to lead.

A Tylor Perry turnover with 2.7 seconds left gave UC the ball back. John Newman III missed a free throw, but the ensuing baseball pass by the Wildcats wound up out of bounds as time expired. The referees double-checked the monitor and gave the winning wave.

It was UC's first home win since Jan. 27. Deep sighs of relief were noticeable as the crowd of 11,974 departed.

"Every night it's like this," Kansas State coach Jerome Tang said. "It's tough when you're on the short end of it. We don't want to do anything else. We compete against the best coaches, the best players in the best conference in America. Hat off to Cincinnati. When they gave up the lead, they could've stopped, but they didn't."

Newman led UC with 18 points, Day Day Thomas had 14 and Luko?ius 13 with the winning trifecta. Perry led Kansas State with 26 but had a costly cough-up at the end.

UC goes to 17-12 (6-10 Big 12) while Kansas State falls to 17-12 (7-9 Big 12).

"I'm not real happy with some of the defensive errors that let them back in the game," UC coach Wes Miller said. "We should've finished and been dribbling the clock out, but that's the Big 12. Give Kansas State and Coach Tang a lot of credit. Nobody's going to go away in this league."

5 takeaways from UC's win over Kansas State

1. It wasn't easy but for now it's a Quad 2

By NCAA NET math, with Kansas State at No. 75 coming in, the victory goes down as a Quadrant 2 win. Had the Wildcats prevailed it would have been a Quad 1 for them.

With 6:51 remaining, UC led by 13, 67-51. Kansas State went on a 21-4 run in a little over five and a half minutes to silence the crowd. In the end, the Wildcats led for a total of 1:44 compared to over 34 minutes for the Bearcats.

2. Flipping the script on turnovers

UC's had as many as 25 turnovers in a game (Iowa State) and just had a total of 36 in the road losses at TCU and Houston. Saturday night, they reversed field and forced 19 turnovers against Kansas State while only committing six of their own. UC had 29 points on Wildcat turnovers.

3. A collective effort

Sophomore Dan Skillings Jr. didn't take part in the shoot-around Saturday and was not dressed for the game with a hip issue. It was just the second game he had missed in his Bearcat career due to injury.

Before the game, Wes Miller had told UC radio voice Dan Hoard that no one player could replace Skillings and they would have to do it collectively.

What Miller got was 18 points from Newman, his first double-digit effort in six games. Thomas, Luko?ius and Jizzle James also hit in double figures and Viktor Lakhin had six points and seven rebounds all in the first half before foul trouble.

Newman had nine points in the opening four minutes of the second half and was cheered on by several family members.

"They'll be here for Senior Day (also)," Newman said. "I have a really great family. A little extra motivation. Sometimes I have to tell myself my mom's watching. That's extra motivation."

As for "Lucky" Luko?ius with the clutch shot, he also celebrated with family afterward.

"It felt great!" Luko?ius said. "The play is something we run usually with a little twist to it. We really executed it great. Day Day and Aziz got me open. Jizzle didn't have an option so he waited for me. I felt some space and got it up."

It was the first game the parents of Luko?ius had seen in person, flying in from Lithuania.

4. Stats sometimes lie

Typically, UC is not outrebounded, but the Wildcats eclipsed them 37-27. They also hit nine 3-pointers to UC's eight. The biggest disparity was Kansas State shot 25 free throws to UC's eight. UC is now 3-8 in games where their opponents shoot more free throws. K-State made 21 of their charity shots, with UC hitting just four.

5. Skillings skills still needed

After the game, Miller mentioned Lakhin had rolled an ankle. The Skillings issue is a hip and C.J. Fredrick remains out with his nagging hamstring.

"Dan does so many things that don't show up in the stat sheet with his activity and his energy," Miller said. "He's our leading scorer. He'll get an MRI (Sunday) and we're hoping for the best. We were down one of our best players and the team kind of rallied around and overcame it, but that's not going to work over time. We need Dan Skillings back."

Next game

UC is at Oklahoma Tuesday night for an 8 p.m. (Eastern) tip with the Sooners. Oklahoma barely lost to No. 1 Houston Saturday, 87-85.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Bearcats beat Kansas State for Big 12 March Madness push