Cincinnati's Bearcats come close to major upset at Houston only to fall short

HOUSTON, Texas —At the sold-out Fertitta Center against No. 3 Houston, the Bearcats clawed tooth and nail for 40 minutes with the Cougars. The building would go silent when the Bearcats opened up a 19-6 lead to start. It would later roar with approval as the Cougars proved worthy of their ranking.

At the buzzer's end, instead of pulling their biggest upset of a ranked team in 11 years, Cincinnati's Bearcats dropped a heartbreaker, 75-69.

With 47 seconds to go, Jamal Shead gave Houston the lead on a jumper 71-69. The Cougars would add free throws from there to account for the game's final score. UC led for more than 31 minutes of the game behind a torrid shooting effort in the first half. For the first time all season, the Cougars were down at the break.

"We shot it so well in the first half from behind the line," UC coach Wes Miller said. "Some of those shots don't go in the second half. There were quite a few that were down and out to be honest. For the most part, we got decent shots relative to the defense they were playing. There was a few around the basket that rolled in and out and JD (Jeremiah Davenport) had a couple looks that rolled in and out. I was proud of the way our guys played even though I'm not happy with the result."

In the 20 days since the Bearcats and Houston's Cougars last played, the Bearcats went on a three-game win streak in the American Athletic Conference, then failed to capitalize at home last Sunday vs. Memphis.

Saturday it looked as if it might be the game of the year for the Bearcats. They had a double-digit lead for much of the first half and left for the locker room with a seven-point advantage.

The Bearcats were up 11 at 60-49 with 11:28 remaining, but the highly-ranked Cougars kept chopping away and eventually took the lead with under four minutes to go courtesy of highly-touted freshman Jarace Walker.

David DeJulius would tie the game with 1:19 left on a 3-pointer, but the Bearcats would not score again.

Landers Nolley II led the Bearcats with 24 points with Viktor Lakhin adding 15 and DeJulius 14. Houston's Walker again was the man for the Cougars vs. UC scoring 25 points. J'Wan Roberts added 14 and Shead, who put Houston up for good had 13 points.

"Jarace Walker was difficult for us tonight," Miller said. "There were some times we guarded him really well and he still converted."

Nolley nearly nails it

The Bearcats were 8-for-12 on 3-pointers in the first half, but only 3-of-15 in the second half to finish 11-for-27. After blistering the nets at 60.7% in the first half, they shot just 30.3 in the second.

Nolley finished 6-of-10 from the arc and his 24 points were the most he's had since scoring 33 against Arizona in the Maui Invitational with nine triples. Nolley II was listed as a game-time decision with a lower-body injury but still appeared in the starting lineup.

"Everybody runs their own race at their own time," Miller said. "People nationally should start paying attention to Landers Nolley. He's one of the best players in the country. Not just his ability, his approach, his toughness. He's been hurt. He hasn't missed a workout since he got here in June 'til this week. I did not expect him to go tonight and he finds a way to tough through it and performs like that."

Nolley appeared to be well after the game in his trademark red Uggs but got on the bus back to the airport disappointed.

"I'm hurting!" he admitted. "Playing Houston, that's a game I couldn't sit out. I just tried to come out here and give it all I had. You're playing the No. 3 team in the country, I expected them to come back."

When he went down injured in the game's final minutes, some in the crowd cheered. The better fans in Houston applauded as he was helped off the court. He would return, but that was a stretch where the Cougars gained momentum.

"I got hurt at a really inconvenient time," Nolley said. "My team did the best they could and Houston just rallied and made some key points."

The Bearcats drop to 14-8 (5-4 AAC) while Houston goes to 20-2 (8-1 AAC). A victory would have been UC's biggest takedown of a top team since beating then-No. 2 Syracuse in the Big East tournament March 9, 2012.

Wearing an elastic brace just below his right knee, Nolley made his first two triples as UC led 9-6 at the first media timeout.

The redshirt senior only missed one shot in the first half, scoring 14 points and making all four of his treys. UC used a 16-0 run to lead at one point by 13.

The Cougars, who hadn't trailed at halftime all season and were tied just once, cut UC's lead to four on an alley-oop dunk by Walker to cut the lead to four, but the only shot Mika Adams-Woods made all half was nothing but net from 40 feet as the Bearcats led 43-36 at the break.

The second-half crowd ebbed and flowed with every possession as the Bearcats would distance themselves, only to have Houston fight back and bring the student section ring of red back into the game in terms of volume.

The Cougars would tie the game at 62 just under the six-minute mark on a lay-in by J'Wan Roberts and again at 64 on free throws by the freshman Walker. The one-and-done future NBA draft pick then put the Cougars up with 3:51 left at 66-64. It was their first lead since being up 6-3 in the game's opening minutes.

A DeJulius 3-pointer would knot the game at 69 with under two minutes, but Shead's jumper put Houston up a basket. The Bearcats would get a possession, but no open look as Lakhin had to force up a 3-pointer and missed the rim.

The Bearcats would end up losing by six.

"It's hard to have your 'A' game every night," Houston's Kelvin Sampson said. "There's such an ignorant narrative going on about our conference and how it's not that good. Look at how well we had to play to win this game. Tells you how good Cincinnati is."

UC is home on Wednesday, Feb. 1 vs. Tulsa at 7 p.m.

Next date in Houston will be in Big 12

Cincinnati hasn't beaten Houston at home in over six years. The last victory was Jan, 7, 2017 when the Fertitta Center was still known as Hofheinz Pavilion, That lineup featured Kyle Washington, Troy Caupain, Jacob Evans, Gary Clark and Kevin Johnson. The Bearcats were ranked No. 22 in the nation at the time and won 67-58. UC did beat the Cougars in back-to-back AAC championship games in 2018 (Orlando) and 2019 (Memphis) at neutral sites. Their most recent defeat of the Cougars was Feb. 2020 at Fifth Third Arena. No other current Bearcats played in that game other than Mika Adams-Woods.

You say it's your birthday?

The Houston game was played on Wes Miller's 40th birthday. Coming in, he was the leading active coach in career wins under 40 with 217. He's among the elite. The most wins by a coach under 40 was 339 by Phog Allen, followed by 307 by Bob Knight. He's ahead of Mike Krzyzewski who had 215 under-40 wins. Allen, Knight and Coach K are all Naismith Basketball Hall of Famers. Bearcat freshman Dan Skillings Jr. also celebrated a birthday on Friday.

Dapper Dan the traveling man

In a little over 24 hours after calling the UC/Houston game, Bearcats play-by-play man Dan Hoard was due to be mikeside in Kansas City as the voice of the Cincinnati Bengals. The AFC championship game starts at 6:30 p.m. (EST). Hoard's plane to Kansas City was set to leave Houston's George Bush International Airport at 8 p.m.

Combine invites

Four Bearcat football players who declared for the NFL Draft have been invited to the NFL Combine. Defenders Ivan Pace Jr. and Arquon Bush plus receiver Tyler Scott and tight end Leonard Taylor have been invited to the event that runs Feb. 27-March 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

CINCINNATI 43 26 69

HOUSTON 36 39 75

H - Roberts 7 0 14 Walker 10 3 25 Sasser 3 2 9 Shead 5 3 13 Mark 2 0 5 Sharp 1 2 5 Francis 1 0 2 Arcenaux 1 0 2

UC -Lakhin 7 1 15 Oguama 1 3 5 Nolley 9 0 24 Adams-Woods 1 0 3 DeJulius 6 0 14 Davenport 3 0 8

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: UC's upset bid at Houston foiled in final minutes by No. 3 Cougars