What we learned from Cincinnati Bearcats basketball's Quad 1 win at UCF Saturday

ORLANDO, Florida – Holding off a frenzied comeback from a UCF team desperate to stay relevant, the Cincinnati Bearcats showed resilience down the stretch in a nail-biting 76-74 win in front of 8,624 at Additional Financial Arena.

Many of those UCF fans were looking for an epic UC collapse.

The Bearcats had led by as many as 14 points, but the Knights tied the game at 73 with 1:19 on the clock. Ten seconds later, Aziz Bandaogo was fouled and made one of his two free throw attempts.

With 22 seconds left, it was Bearcat ball. Simas Lukošius delivered a clutch lay-in for a three-point lead at 11 seconds.

Dan Skillings Jr. missed a pair of free throws at five seconds. To avoid UCF getting off a game-tying 3-pointer, UC purposely fouled Marchelus Avery who made one and missed the second in hopes of getting the rebound. While the ball was loose, time expired and UC won a two-point thriller.

"Anytime you can win in this league, it's that difficult of a league," UC coach Wes Miller said. "If you can win on the road, I think there's an extra edge to that."

As UCF came into the game with an NCAA NET ranking of 66, it qualifies as a Quad 1 win on the road.

The Bearcats are now 16-9 (5-7 in the Big 12) while UCF falls to 13-11 (4-8 Big 12).

Skillings Jr. led the Bearcats with 15 points and eight rebounds. Lukošius had 12 with the crunch-time bucket.

Darius Johnson led UCF with 16 points. UCF coach Johnny Dawkins thought Johnson was fouled on a late three-point attempt, but it was not called. It was UCF's third straight loss.

"I thought we were a play or two away from being able to overcome the deficit and take a lead," Dawkins said. "Give them credit. They made the plays and shots they need to make down the stretch to close the game out."

5 takeaways from a Big 12 win in Orlando

1. Quad 1 wins earned, not given

For just the third time in the last 13 games, the Bearcats led at halftime. The lead expanded to 49-35 about two and half minutes into the second half. But, UCF had just come off a wild second half at BYU where they scored 62 points and nearly stole the game.

As the fans chanted "U-C-F!" the Knights kept plowing until they wiped UC's lead away. Fortunately, the Bearcats responded and UCF never led outside of 29 seconds early in the contest.

2. Lukošius a load on road

Just as he did at then-No. 15 Texas Tech two weeks ago, No. 41 was able to make a key shot right in front of a rabid student section.

"I passed to Dan (Skillings), he almost turned the ball over," Lukošius said to chuckles. "Thankfully, we were able to get it. I knew there was eight seconds on the shot clock or something like that. I just went one-on-one. I saw he gave me a little bit of an angle toward the baseline. I had to push him off so I don't end up under the backboard. It worked out."

3. Skillings starts fast

Skillings Jr. reacted to his first start in five games with a hot hand early. By the second media timeout, the sophomore already had 10 points, making it his seventh straight game in double figures. Skillings had a dozen at halftime, but UCF hunkered down on him in the second half. He did have a traditional three-point play with five minutes to go that gave UC a seven-point lead and his presence was felt on the glass with eight rebounds.

"Dan Skillings had an incredible start to the game and really lifted us," Miller said.

4. Bandaogo, Reynolds pound boards

Seven-footer Bandaogo had a season-high 13 points with eight rebounds for the Bearcats and delivered another good road performance. In previous Quad 1 wins he had 12 points and 11 rebounds at BYU and 10 points and 10 boards at Texas Tech.

Reynolds, who formerly played at UCF before Temple and UC, had six points and a game-high nine rebounds in 14 minutes.

The Bearcats outrebounded UCF 46-33 and had 18 offensive rebounds.

"Last Saturday, we got outrebounded by 17 and that's about as pissed as I've been in on a statistic since I've been coaching at Cincinnati," Miller said. "We were impactful there tonight and we have to continue to be if we're going to be competitive."

5. No problems with snow problems

Because of the snow and icy conditions in Cincinnati Friday night, UC's charter didn't arrive in Orlando until after midnight. The team arrived at their hotel around 1:30 a.m. They happily headed back to the winter wonderland from a Florida rain Saturday night.

"Our kids were just enjoying each other," Miller said of the travel delay. "They didn't blink. They didn't complain about being tired. I've been around college basketball for 20 years. Not every team is that way."

Welcome home

Last season, Bearcat freshman Jizzle James watched the heroics of David DeJulius as his buzzer-beater gave UC a 73-71 win over UCF in Orlando. Saturday, James had seven points in 14 minutes in his return and finished the game for the Bearcats when Day Day Thomas fouled out.

Next game

The Bearcats return home to play Oklahoma State Wednesday night at Fifth Third Arena. The Cowboys Saturday pulled the 93-83 upset of No. 19 BYU..

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Observations on Cincinnati Bearcats gaining a Quad 1 win at UCF