No. 14 Cincinnati pulls away in the second half and beats Howard 84-67

CINCINNATI (AP) — Simas Lukosius scored 18 points, Aziz Bandaogo added 17 and Dillon Mitchell 14 to lead No. 14 Cincinnati to an 84-67 victory over Howard on Sunday.

Cincinnati (7-1) led by four points after one half and came out firing in the second, hitting three straight baskets to extend its lead to 10 points. The Bearcats outscored Howard Bison (3-6) 48-35 in the second half to seal the win and rebound from Tuesday’s eight-point loss to Villanova.

Blake Harper had 23 points and 10 rebounds and Marcus Dockery added 14 points for Howard.

Takeaways

Howard: The Bison lost for the sixth time in nine games. Howard’s dynamic scoring guard tandem of Dockery and Harper accounted for more than half of the team’s scoring.

Cincinnati: Lukosius led the Bearcats in scoring with 7-for-10 shooting overall and 3-for-6 sniping from long distance.

Key moment

Cincinnati third-year guard Dan Skillings Jr. returned to the court for the first time since the Bearcats season-opener on Nov. 4. Skillings missed the previous six games with a knee injury sustained in the opener. He played 14 minutes and had two points, three rebounds and three assists.

Key stat

The Bearcats outrebounded Howard 37-23 overall and 14-5 on the offensive glass.

Up next

Howard hosts Virginia-Lynchburg on Wednesday, while Cincinnati hosts Xavier on Saturday.

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