A homecoming of sorts for Wes Miller spoiled as UC basketball falls at East Carolina

GREENVILLE, North Carolina — A 16-point lead was not enough Wednesday night as the University of Cincinnati couldn't stop a furious second-half comeback at East Carolina, falling to the Pirates 75-71.

The school that opens its games with "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix left the Bearcats in a haze as UC made just one of their last 10 field goals and missed the final five shots over the last 2:49 of the game.

With just over nine minutes to go, UC led 65-49. From there they scored just six points and boarded the bus to the airport at 17-10 (8-6 AAC). R.J. Felton's jumper with 58 seconds left put the Pirates up for good as UC would not recover.

"It's a difficult night," Bearcats coach Wes Miller said. "We did not play well in the second half. We did not play well after making good plays. We didn't play the next play. We weren't focused. We didn't finish the game even though we had opportunities to do that. So, you're frustrated on every possible level and disappointed."

Much like their last road loss at Tulane, the Bearcats led for the bulk of the game. For 37 minutes and 55 seconds, the visiting Bearcats led in front of the 4,065 gathered. The Pirates had a brief first-half lead, then their frantic finish. In all, they were ahead for one minute and 21 seconds, just enough to up their record to 13-12 (4-8 AAC).

"It's a tough pill to swallow," UC grad student David DeJulius said. "We had some lapses where we didn't play how we play for 40 minutes. That's kind of what happened down the stretch. Kudos to them, they had a great game plan and they executed down the stretch."

On this final trip to East Carolina's Minges Coliseum, the University of Cincinnati was greeted by some familiar faces who made the journey to Greenville to take in Bearcats basketball.

On hand to view the contest it was Miller's father and several friends including a former coach of note, Roy Williams. UC's Ody Oguama and John Newman III also had familiar faces on hand coming from Raleigh and Greensboro, respectively. Unfortunately, the homecoming was spoiled when Felton gave East Carolina the lead for good with a minute remaining.

Former Bearcat Eric Hicks also attended the game and was among those waiting to speak to the young players after the game. The only positive for some was seeing family members they hadn't seen in a while.

Senior Jeremiah Davenport led the Bearcats off the bench with 19 points, 16 of those coming in the first half. Landers Nolley II added 19 and DeJulius had 15. Ody Oguama had 6 points and 9 rebounds in a game where UC was outrebounded 46-27.

"South Florida and tonight," Miller said of getting beat on the glass again. "We tried to address it this week in practice. We got destroyed on the backboards. It's not OK, it's frustrating!"

ECU had five in double figures led by Brandon Johnson with 16 points. Freshman Ezra Ausar had 14 points and 14 rebounds and Felton finished with 15 points after scoring just two in the first half.

"We were slow to the ball," Miller said. "They beat us to a bunch of balls. That gives them energy and the game gets away from you."

UC still leads the series against ECU 19-3. Wes Miller is now 4-1 against the Pirates as head coach of the Bearcats.

Davenport came into the game needing 12 points to become the latest to reach 1,000 points at UC. He reached it late in the first half and led all scorers at the break with 16 points. DeJulius joined the elite club earlier this season.

UC led for most of the first half but did surrender the lead to the Pirates for 23 seconds on a basket by Felton. It would be his only field goal in 10 tries during the opening stanza. Down 21-20 with 7:13 remaining, the Bearcats went on a 10-0 run on a pair of Davenport threes (including a 4-point play) and a Nolley dunk to lead 31-21. The flurry took less than two minutes. The Bearcats led 37-29 at half but would drop their fourth game of the year when leading at the break.

Two of the game's three referees officiated the majority of the second half. Bart Lenox took a fall under the basket and was helped off the court by Bearcats head basketball Athletic Trainer Bob Mangine and his East Carolina counterpart. Lenox did return late in the half to finish the game.

UC began the half on a 7-0 run to increase the lead to 44-29. The Bearcats led by 16 with 9:03 left in the contest, but ECU was able to whittle away at the lead, eventually going up 72-71 with a minute left on the Felton jumper.

"Coach just preaches next play mentality," DeJulius said of the blown lead. "Our attitude kind of got to us there."

Outside of a possible AAC tourney rematch, this is the final meeting between the two schools in basketball for the foreseeable future with the Bearcats moving to the Big 12. East Carolina's previous win before Wednesday was also memorable coming on Jan. 5, 2019, against a Mick Cronin-coached team that went on to win the American Athletic Conference NCAA bid at the conference tournament in Memphis. The Bearcats finished that season No 29 in the KenPom.com ratings, with ECU at No. 264.

Road games are never easy. The Bearcats now must prepare to play UCF on Sunday, likely without Viktor Lakhin again whose 6-foot-11-inch presence has been sorely missed, particularly in the rebounding department.

Tough night rewarded for Pirate fans

Wednesday's game was ECU's first in 11 days as their game last Saturday with Tulane was canceled. The school's long-time broadcaster, Jeff Charles, passed at age 70 last Friday in New Orleans from a heart attack and the AAC called the game. Charles had been with the Pirates for over 30 years and held similar jobs at Virginia Tech, Illinois and Furman. He was a native of Piqua, Ohio. Charles was honored on the Dowdy-Ficklen football scoreboard as well as the Williams Arena video board and the Pirates wore t-shirts in warmups with his initials, "JC".

Linebackers coach leaves

Less than two months after coming to UC from Scott Satterfield's staff at Louisville, Derek Nicholson has left for a job with the Miami Hurricanes. A UC source confirmed the move Tuesday. The Hurricanes were 5-7 in the ACC last fall under Mario Cristobal.

Linebackers coach arrives

Nicholson's replacement is Cortney Braswell who has been with the Army Black Knights the past two seasons coaching inside linebackers. Army confirmed the move Wednesday afternoon. He comes from the Scott Satterfield tree having been a quality control coach at Louisville in 2019 before moving to coach outside linebackers at Appalachian State in 2000 leading them to the Myrtle Beach Bowl. He was part of the 2021 American Football Coaches Association 35 under 35 class. Prior to joining the college ranks he was a successful high school coach in Tennessee and Georgia.

Hopefully, he rented

After joining Luke Fickell's staff at Wisconsin as tight ends coach, former Bearcat quarterback and quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli appears headed for Notre Dame to serve as quarterback coach. ESPN's Pete Thamel reported the move of Guidugli to the Fighting Irish of Marcus Freeman Wednesday afternoon. Guidugli confirmed the move Wednesday night.

CINCINNATI 37 34 71

EAST CAROLINA 29 46 75

UC - Ezikpe 4 0 8 Nolley 7 4 19 Adams-Woods 2 0 4 DeJulius 6 2 15 Oguama 2 2 6 Davenport 6 2 19

ECU -Felton 5 4 15 Ausar 6 2 14 Diboundje 3 5 13 Walker 5 0 10 Bayela 1 0 3 Debaut 2 0 4

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Basketball: UC Bearcats lose lead in loss to ECU Pirates