by Don Mooney
FORT WORTH, Texas – Freshman guard Dan Skillings Jr. turned in a career-high 20 points off the bench to propel No. 4 seed Cincinnati to an 84-54 win over No. 5 seed Temple in American Athletic Championship Quarterfinals on Friday afternoon.
Redshirt senior and AAC First-Teamer Landers Nolley II added 22 points, his third 20-point game in the last four contests. Senior guard Mike Adams added 20 points behind 5-7 from behind the arc.
Cincinnati advances to face No. 1 and top-seed Houston in the semifinals on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2. This game also marked Cincinnati’s highest margin-of-victory in any conference tourney game all-time.
Temple connected on their first two attempts of the contest before Cincinnati answered back with scores on three straight possessions, four points which came in the post from redshirt sophomore forward Viktor Lakhin. The Owls buried one from behind the arc to take an 8-6 lead into the first media timeout.
Lakhin filled the stat sheet with six points, seven blocks, five rebounds and three steals. His seven blocks tied the AAC Championship individual record of seven set in 2015.
Seven-straight points from Skillings halted an 11-0 Owls’ run and trimmed the margin back to 16-13 at the midway point of the first half. Skillings Jr. turned in 11 first-half points, six of which were off second-chance offensive rebounds, for his fourth 10-plus point game of his career.
Nolley buried a corner triple to close out the Bearcats’ 12-2 spurt over 2:44 minutes of action that tied the game at 18. The run was a part of a larger 19-4 stretch that provided the Bearcats a 25-20 advantage and forced an Owls timeout with 6:59 minutes left in the first half.