Senior guard David DeJulius scored 18 points and sophomore post Viktor Lakhin recorded his second career double-double to lead the Cincinnati men's basketball team to a 69-58 victory over Cleveland State on Thursday night at Fifth Third Arena.

Lakhin made his first five field goal attempts, scoring 14 points to go along with 12 boards and three blocks. Senior wing Landers Nolley II added 16 points, as UC improved to 2-0.

The Bearcats held a commanding 42-31 edge on the glass, and outscored the Vikings 13-0 in fastbreak points as UC constantly pushed the pace.

The game was tied 43-43 with 12:40 remaining when junior forward Jarrett Hensley's shot-clock-buzzer-beating putback sparked a 13-4 run that gave Cincinnati control of the game down the stretch.

Freshman Daniel Skillings and Lakhin both had putbacks during the run and DeJulius's second-chance 3-pointer with 7:04 remaining capped the run and gave the Bearcats their largest lead of the night, 56-47, at that point.

A pair of Nolley free throws put UC in front 60-49 with just under four minutes left as Cleveland State missed nine straight buckets in the games waning minutes.

An emphatic block by senior wing Jeremiah Davenport at 3:11 typified a performance that, though uneven on offense, featured plenty of strong dunks, second-chance points and momentum-shifting defensive plays.

Cleveland State's last gasp effort came in the form of a 3-pointer from Drew Louder that made the score 62-55 with 1:31 left.

Nolley's dunk and fastbreak layup put the game out of a reach, 68-58, with 25 seconds left.

Cincinnati missed its first five 3-point attempts to start the game, but knocked down three straight midway through the first half.

Ten minutes into the contest, Nolley made a steal, drove, whipped a pass to senior guard Mika Adams-Woods, who then found DeJulius for the Bearcats' first 3-pointer of the game, which put UC ahead, 19-13.
One minute later, Davenport buried another triple and Hensley added one at 7:20 to put Cincinnati in front 25-18.

The Vikings fought back and used a 5-0 run to trail by only 1 at halftime, 30-29.

Cleveland State's Tristan Enaruna made a reverse layup seconds before halftime, and Cincinnati held a 30-29 lead at the end of the first frame.

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Cincinnati hosts Eastern Kentucky at Fifth Third Arena on Sunday at Noon.