The question: How would the University of Cincinnati men's basketball team respond in its first game since losing to rival Xavier in the Crosstown Shootout?
The answer: Well. At least in stretches.
Keith Williams scored a game-high 27 points and Cincinnati never trailed en route to a 78-73 win over Furman on Wednesday at Fifth Third Arena.
"We needed that," Williams said. "We had to because it (77-69 loss to Xavier on Sunday) was a tough one for us. But we just had to play hard tonight and try to win. That's what we did."
Williams scored nine of the Bearcats' first 17 points and freshman Tari Eason looked more than ready in his first collegiate start, as UC handed the pesky Paladins (4-1) their first loss of the season.
"That team is an elite offensive basketball team," Cincinnati coach John Brannen said. "Not only that, but they're one of the top, I'm not going to call them mid-major because they got high-major length. They're going to go down as one of the tougher teams on our schedule. They're really good."
Furman, which has won 25 games in each of the past two seasons, was the media's preseason pick to win the Southern Conference. The league's coaches picked the Paladins to finish second.
Next up: The Bearcats (2-1) travel to Knoxville, Tennessee, to face the No. 12/16 (AP/Coaches) Volunteers (1-0) on Saturday (12:30 p.m. on SEC Network Alternate). Tennessee, which has had five games canceled over the past two weeks due to COVID-19, opened its season Tuesday with a 56-47 win over Colorado.
What we learned from Wednesday's win:
Eason's length, athleticism are a lethal combination
The Bearcats will likely take the court with a few different starting lineups early on as Brannen continues to find the right rotations in this very unconventional season.
Brannen elected Wednesday to start Eason over graduate transfer Rapolas Ivanauskas, and it could be a lasting move.
Eason became the first UC freshman to start at power forward since Gary Clark in 2014.
"I thought Tari was outstanding," Brannen said. "His length and athleticism is just different than everybody else's on the floor. Once he continues to learn how to take care of the basketball and make good decisions offensively, he's going to continue to play minutes and be a special player here."
The 6-foot-8, 215-pound Seattle native was a matchup nightmare on both ends of the court.
Whether it was coming over from the weak side to block a shot or jumping out of the gym on a fast-break dunk, Eason's potential to be great was palpable.
Eason finished with eight points on 4-of-7 shooting, two rebounds, two assists, a steal and two big blocks.
"I felt great. I feel like I'm really starting to do better and help the team," he said. "My goal is to keep improving every single game, just to get a little bit better and a little bit better every single game. I'm ready to just keep working with these guys and keep doing what I gotta do."
Williams owned it and then showed it
Following Sunday's defeat, Williams took ownership of his subpar play down the stretch.
"I came back to lead this team so everything is on me, defensively, offensively," he said. "I'll take this loss. I'll take this on the chin as a veteran."
Williams was a different player Wednesday.
Williams was aggressive early and was the best player on the court throughout most of the night.
"Keith always brings just a tremendous scoring presence and defensive presence to the team," Eason said. "When Keith is really locked in, he's one of the best players in the country, hands down."
Williams' early-season struggles at the foul line continued. The senior guard, who was about an 80% free-throw shooter a year ago, was just 6 of 12 from the line. But he delivered everywhere else, particularly on the defensive end.
"Today, I was just trying to play defense the whole game," he said. "Scoring came, but my whole approach was defense tonight."
Williams had two steals and two blocks, and was UC's only player in double figures in points.
"We needed all 27 of them tonight," Brannen said. "I was shocked to see nobody else in double digits. That's extremely rare for our team, to score 78 points and have that happen."
Cincinnati committed way too many turnovers
Brannen applauded his team's ability to take care of the basketball through the first two games.
UC had 15 assists to 12 turnovers in the season opener against Lipscomb, and followed that with a 19-assist, eight-turnover effort against the Musketeers.
The Bearcats had a season-high 16 turnovers against 18 assists Wednesday.
"We coughed it up too much tonight," Brannen said. "I thought in some of the instances we were just in a situation where we could've just thrown the ball back out and reset our offense. Part of it was my play-calling. We don't know any of our quick-hitters right now. That's obvious out of timeouts. We look like we have no idea what we're doing out of timeouts, which will change as time goes on. We have to play more in our flow. Sixteen turnovers is too much for us."
Michigan transfer David DeJulius committed the first three turnovers of his Cincinnati career.
"He got whacked out a little bit over it," Brannen said with a smile.
The junior guard has a team-high 15 assists through the first three games.