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Cincinnati coach Wes Miller didn’t make life easy for his former pupil Friday night as Simas Lukosius and Jizzle James each scored 19 points to lead the No. 17 Bearcats to an 86-49 rout of visiting Nicholls State.

Lukosius is off to one of the hottest starts in the country from beyond the arc, converting 5 of 7 on Friday and improving to 10 of 14 for the season. As a team, Cincinnati (3-0) drained 11 of 27 (40.7 percent) from long distance in the runaway win.

Cincinnati shot 33-for-61 (54.1 percent) from the field while holding Nicholls to just 21-for-69 (30.4 percent) from the floor.

Texas transfer Dillon Mitchell continues to make an impact for his new team in Cincinnati, scoring 12 points and grabbing nine rebounds in 24 minutes.

Jamal West Jr. had 12 points to lead the Colonels (2-3), coached by Tevon Saddler. Miller was the head coach at UNC Greensboro when he recruited Saddler to play for him early in the last decade.

Arrinten Page and Aziz Bandaogo led a block party for the Bearcats, with Page swatting five shots and Bandaogo rejecting four. In all, Cincinnati turned away 14 shots.

Nicholls, one night after dominating Northern Kentucky 57-33 on the boards in a 61-59 last-second win, was overmatched by Cincinnati. In addition to Mitchell’s nine rebounds, James, Page and Lukosius each had six rebounds as Cincinnati won the glass 46-32.

Cincinnati blew the game open by scoring the first 13 points of the second half, running their lead to 55-22. Lukosius scored five points in that span. The Bearcats committed just three turnovers in the second half after turning the ball over nine times in the opening 20 minutes.

Page drained a 3-pointer with 10:29 left in the first half to ignite a 9-0 Cincinnati run that expanded the lead to 25-12.

The Bearcats scored the final seven points of the half, capped by a Lukosius trey, to take a 42-22 edge into the break.

–Field Level Media