Quincy Olivari scored 27 points, Dayvion McKnight scored 20 points and Xavier won its fifth straight against Cincinnati, beating the Bearcats 84-79 on Saturday.
Desmond Claude added 11 points and Abou Ousmane scored 10 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Musketeers (5-5).
True freshman backup Jizzle James scored 14 of his career-high 19 points in the first-half for the Bearcats who lost for the first time this season (7-1). John Newman III scored 18 points, Viktor Lakhin 17 and Day Day Thomas 15 for Cincinnati.
Ousmane’s layup with 13:03 left broke a 49-all tie and Xavier held off Cincinnati from there.
The Bearcats went on a 14-5 run to start the second half and took their first lead of the game when Aziz Bandaogo made 1 of 2 foul shots with 16:10 remaining to make it 41-40.
Xavier responded to outscore Cincinnati 17-6 over the next five minutes and led 57-47 with 11:24 left to post its biggest lead of the night to that point.
James made a layup and a 3-pointer to bring the Bearcats within 18-17 halfway through the first half before Xavier seized momentum and outscored Cincinnati 17-10 for the remainder of the half and led 35-27 at halftime. Cincinnati missed 9 of its last 10 shots in the first half.
Cincinnati entered off to its best start since 2017-18, and a win would’ve mark its first 8-0 since 2012-13, its final season in the Big East Conference.
The Bearcats host Bryant on Tuesday.
Xavier hosts Winthrop on Saturday.
