Baba Miller scored 24 points and took 11 rebounds and Day Day Thomas added 12 points to lead host Cincinnati to a 74-64 win over Georgia State on Friday.
The Bearcats (2-0) led by nine points at halftime and by 15 three and a half minutes into the second half. Georgia State drew to within 49-44 on Micah Tucker’s driving layup with 13:15 to play, but Cincinnati rebuilt its margin to a dozen points and the visitors never got closer than eight the rest of the way.
Miller went 8 of 9 from the floor. Moustapha Thiam added 10 points and nine boards for Cincinnati, which ruled the paint while scoring 36 points in the lane and outrebounding Georgia State 40-35.
Jelani Hamilton led all scorers with 26 points and Joah Chappelle had 10 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Panthers (0-2), who shot just 36.8% from the floor but stayed within shouting distance by making 16 of their 18 free throws.
The Panthers started out hot, forging a six-point lead on two separate occasions before Cincinnati used a 13-0 run capped by a driving layup by Sencire Harris to leapfrog to a 19-12 advantage at the 12:25 mark of the first half.
The Bearcats were up 27-20 when Thiam converted a hook shot with 6:39 left in the half, but Georgia State scored the next six points to pull to within one.
Cincinnati finished the half with a 12-4 surge, with the half’s last basket coming on a dunk by Thiam with 4 seconds remaining that granted the Bearcats a 39-30 lead at the break.
Hamilton’s 13 points before halftime led all scorers; six of his points came from the free-throw line. Cincinnati was paced by Harris’ nine points over the first 20 minutes of play as the Bearcats limited Georgia State to 29.4% shooting in the half.
The Panthers’ Malachi Brown scored the first points of the second half before Cincinnati reeled off the next seven, with Miller covering a three-point play and then a driving layup that put the hosts up 46-32.
