Kansas center Hunter Dickinson (1) is guarded by Cincinnati forward Arrinten Page (22) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

Cincinnati — After an ugly, low-scoring, slow-paced first 33 minutes Kansas dealt a death blow to Cincinnati with one pivotal stretch of 14 straight points.

Previously clinging to a one-point lead, the KU men’s basketball team pounced on the Bearcats with seven minutes to go. Led by guard Zeke Mayo, who scored a contested layup over Cincinnati’s Dan Skillings Jr., swiped the ball from Day Day Thomas and tossed a crucial lob to teammate Shakeel Moore, KU brought an end to a back-and-forth rock fight at Fifth Third Arena, taking down UC by a score of 54-40.

Cincinnati shot just 21.4% in the second half, including a 2-for-13 showing beyond the arc. KU didn’t make any 3s at all after the break and wasn’t much better in general, but forced turnovers and grabbed rebounds to prevent the Bearcats from undertaking their long, meticulous offensive possessions.

Center Hunter Dickinson was the Jayhawks’ only double-digit scorer, but his 14-point, 12-rebound performance helped make the difference in the game.

Dillon Mitchell scored 10 for Cincinnati and Skillings and Arrinten Page posted nine each.

KU fell behind 8-2 on a series of aggressive drives to the rim by the Bearcats before Dajuan Harris Jr. banked in a 3-pointer to quell Cincinnati’s early offensive. The Jayhawks took their first lead of the game when Zeke Mayo batted a rebound away from a leaping Dan Skillings Jr., took it himself and drained another 3 in transition to make it 10-8.

Back-to-back steals by Skillings on errant passes by Harris hampered KU’s offense and a putback dunk by the substitute Page put UC ahead again. The Jayhawks didn’t score for more than five minutes until David Coit broke through for a layup, only for Skillings to connect on a corner 3 moments later.

KU trailed by seven points on a pair of occasions, but the slow, meticulous Cincinnati offense labored on a string of empty possessions. With 46.8 seconds remaining, UC’s Day Day Thomas got called for the first shooting foul by either team, and AJ Storr made a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to one point.

Thomas missed a desperation 3 at the shot-clock buzzer on the Bearcats’ final possession of the half, giving the Jayhawks one last opportunity, but Harris’ last-second layup rattled out.

KU took a long-awaited lead on a floater by Zeke Mayo early in the second half, missed a string of open shots that could have extended its lead further, but still took its largest lead at 28-25 on a steal into a transition layup by Shakeel Moore. Then Cincinnati scored its first point since three minutes and 46 seconds remained in the first half on a 1-for-2 trip to the line for Jizzle James.

Once again draining the entire shot clock, Page put the Bearcats in front on a stepback 3 over Flory Bidunga with 13:22 to go. The teams went back and forth down the stretch as KU handled itself well with a bench-heavy lineup. KJ Adams, a machine on the offensive glass, put back a missed layup by Moore through a foul by Skillings with 7:57 to go, but couldn’t finish the three-point play after the under-8 timeout.

A significant swing by the standards of a low-scoring game occurred shortly after, with Page missing an open dunk and Moore sinking a floater on the subsequent possession, forcing Cincinnati to call timeout down five points with 5:13 remaining.

That was when Mayo and the Jayhawks kicked into gear for the 14-0 run, capped off by a floater by Harris. Cincinnati didn’t score until a 3-pointer by Josh Reed with 1:21 to go.

The Jayhawks will play their second straight road game against Iowa State at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

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