Cincinnati Beats San Francisco in Postseason NIT Opener
Cincinnati outlasted San Francisco, 73-72, in overtime to advance to the second round of the men’s postseason NIT on Wednesday night.
The Cincinnati Bearcats are the only remaining Big 12 team in the event. Cincinnati will face Bradley, a 74-62 winner over Loyola Chicago, in the second round. The game date and time is to be announced but won’t be any earlier than Saturday.
The Bearcats (21-14) failed to win the game in regulation and fell behind early in overtime. After San Francisco took a 72-68 lead with 2:38 left, the Bearcats held the Dons without a point for the remainder of the game.
Jizzle James made a jumper with 1:47 left to cut the lead two points. Then, with just four seconds remaining, Simas Lukosius rescued the Bearcats with a 3-pointer to push the ahead.
It was Lukosius’ game for Cincinnati. He dropped 28 points on the Dons, including an 8-for-10 game from the 3-point line. It was reminiscent of his performance in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament, where he scored a career-high 31 points on West Virginia and made seven 3-pointers.
Cincinnati had a six-point lead, 67-61, with 1:30 remaining after a Dan Skillings Jr. lay-up. But the Dons scored the final six points to send the game to overtime — a Malik Thomas three-point play and a corner 3-pointer from Thomas with nine seconds left.
Along the way, Aziz Bandaogo missed what could have been a game-icing free throw and James missed what would have been a game-winning 3-pointer in regulation.
Skillings added 16 points and eight rebounds while James had 11 points off the bench.
Thomas had a huge game for USF, finishing with 31 points, including five 3-pointers.
Kansas State and UCF fell in their first-round men’s postseason NIT games on Tuesday. Kansas State lost to Iowa, 91-82, while UCF lost to in-state rival USF, 83-77.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
