Saturday’s game in Atlanta started like a dream for Cincinnati. The Bearcats won the tip, Day Day Thomas found Shon Abaev for a dunk, and just like that, they were on the board.
For a few minutes, it looked like the team fans had been waiting to see all season - aggressive, connected, and confident. But that version of the Bearcats didn’t stick around.
Georgia stormed back behind a dominant second-half effort to hand Cincinnati an 84-65 loss that left head coach Wes Miller visibly frustrated.
“I’m extremely angry,” Miller said postgame. “I’ve got to reserve a lot of color for the sake of saying the wrong thing.”
And you could understand why. Cincinnati came out with a clear plan and executed it well - for about 16 minutes.
They attacked the paint early, with Baba Miller leading the charge. He made his first five shots from the field, three of them dunks, and finished the first half with 10 points.
The Bearcats weren’t lighting it up from deep, but they were getting good looks and converting inside.
Defensively, they did what few teams have managed this season: they made Georgia - the nation’s top-scoring offense at nearly 100 points per game - look uncomfortable. The Bearcats forced turnovers, closed out on shooters, and controlled the tempo. At the under-eight media timeout, Cincinnati was up 33-22 and very much in control.
Moustapha Thiam and Halvine Dzellat were diving on the floor for loose balls. The team was locked in.
The energy was there. The effort was there.
The execution was there.
“We had a nice game plan,” Miller said. “The kids did a nice job of trying to prepare for this game. We had a hard week of practice, and you could see the things that we worked on happening in the first 16 to 18 minutes of the game.”
But then it unraveled - and fast.
Georgia flipped the switch with a 15-4 run to close the half, tying the game at 37 going into the break. The Bulldogs couldn’t buy a three (0-for-8 from deep in the first half), but they dominated inside, going 15-for-21 on two-point attempts and racking up 26 points in the paint.
Cincinnati’s defense, so sharp early, began to lose its edge. The intensity dipped.
The communication faltered. And Georgia took full advantage.
The second half was more of the same - and not in a good way for the Bearcats. Georgia came out firing, and Cincinnati couldn’t match the energy.
The offense stalled. Turnovers piled up.
Bad shots led to easy transition buckets for the Bulldogs. And the Bearcats’ defensive rotations, which had been crisp early, became a step slow.
“You can go back and watch the first half when we didn’t turn the ball over and made good decisions,” Miller said. “Then go back and watch what it looks like when we don’t do those things.”
Baba Miller echoed that sentiment, taking ownership of his own role in the momentum shift.
“I made some bad decisions that affected the team and changed the momentum. That’s on me,” he said.
Miller tried to mix things up defensively, throwing some zone at Georgia, but the Bulldogs had no problem adjusting. They attacked the soft spots, found the high post, and dumped it down low for easy finishes. It was textbook zone offense - and Cincinnati didn’t have an answer.
Meanwhile, Jeremiah Wilkinson, who had been held to just two points in the first half, erupted in the second. He finished with 17, most of them coming in transition or off Bearcat turnovers.
“They got him out in the open floor off turnovers and bad shots,” Miller said. “He had a lot easier shots in the open court.”
That was the story of the second half: poor shot selection, empty possessions, and Georgia capitalizing on every mistake. After putting up 33 points in the first 12 minutes, Cincinnati managed just 32 over the final 27. During that stretch, they were outscored by 30.
Foul trouble didn’t help. Both Day Day Thomas and Baba Miller spent extended time on the bench, and without them, the Bearcats struggled to find any rhythm on either end.
The bench was quiet. The energy was gone.
And the game slipped away.
“It’s hard,” Miller said. “Day Day is one of the best players we have. He always generates plays for us, so not having him on the court affects not only us offensively but defensively, too.”
This loss marked the second straight game where Cincinnati did a solid job defending the three-point line but got torched inside. Xavier shot 66% from two-point range in the previous game, and Georgia followed that up by going 26-for-39 inside the arc - also 66%. That’s a trend that’s becoming a problem.
And it’s not just about the opponent. Xavier wasn’t known for its interior scoring, yet they had their way in the paint. Georgia, on the other hand, came in with the nation’s second-best two-point shooting percentage - and they lived up to the billing.
“The adjustments were put into play in the first half, and they were good,” Miller said. “We didn’t sustain them.”
That’s been the recurring theme for Cincinnati: strong stretches, but not full games. The effort is there in spurts.
The execution comes and goes. And the consistency just hasn’t followed.
Now, with one more high-major opponent left before conference play - a road trip to Clemson - the Bearcats are staring at a critical stretch. The pieces are there, but they’ve got to find a way to put it all together for 40 minutes.
“We have to be cognizant of our energy,” Baba Miller said. “Coming into practice tomorrow, we have to fight through it and stick together and keep trying to figure it out together.
“This isn’t what you want, but it is what it is. It’s really encouraging knowing you have so many opportunities to bounce back from this. We just have to approach it with the right mindset and do our best to do that.”
The Bearcats showed a glimpse of their potential on Saturday - but glimpses won’t get it done in this league. Not in December. And definitely not when January rolls around.