Baba Miller slammed home a dunk with 36.9 seconds remaining and grabbed a key rebound moments later as host Cincinnati rallied for a 69-65 win over Utah in Big 12 play on Sunday afternoon.
Miller finished with 13 points and seven rebounds while Moustapha Thiam added 15 and 10, respectively, to send Cincinnati (14-12, 6-7 Big 12) to its third straight victory.
Day Day Thomas led the Bearcats with 16 points and Keyshuan Tillery added 10 off the bench.
Don McHenry scored 18 points and Keanu Dawes added 16 to go along with 14 rebounds for Utah (9-16, 1-11), which fell to 0-9 in road games this season.
Ibrahima Traore converted a layup with 4:20 remaining and started a 6-0 run that put Utah up 65-60 with 1:56 left in a back-and-forth game.
Miller’s dunk with 36.9 seconds left gave Cincinnati a 66-65 lead. Dawes missed a straight-away 3-pointer with 23 seconds remaining and Miller grabbed the rebound. Thomas converted two free throws with 18 seconds left for a three-point lead.
McHenry was long on a 3-pointer with four seconds left that would have tied the game.
Cincinnati opened the game with a bang as Thiam won the opening tip to Thomas, who dribbled down the right side and lobbed to Miller for an alley-oop dunk in the opening four seconds of the game. Miller was honored before the game with a game ball by head coach Wes Miller and given a standing ovation for reaching the 1,000-point plateau in his career against UCF last Sunday.
The Bearcats took an early 14-8 lead before Utah ran off 10 straight points thanks to 3-pointers from Kendyl Sanders and Dawes and four points from Terrence Brown.
Utah was up 20-16 before Cincinnati answered with a 12-0 run, highlighted by consecutive 3-pointers from Tillery. Eventually the Bearcats built their biggest lead of the half at 32-23 on a Miller dunk with five minutes left.
But the Utes rallied with an 11-5 run and trailed by only three at 37-34 at halftime despite Cincinnati’s 18-6 advantage in the paint.
