Sunday, November 28, 1999

UC 88, Santa Clara 67

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Bearcats half good, half bad

BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Kenyon Martin (AP photos) | ZOOM |

        HILO, Hawaii — On a road trip that will keep the Bearcats away from Cincinnati for more than a week, they are required to play only 120 minutes of high-level, competitive basketball. Two hours doesn't seem like a lot, so is it too much to ask?

        Don't bother asking UC coach Bob Huggins. He was disappointed the No.1-ranked Bearcats were unable to last 40 minutes Saturday in their 88-67 victory over Santa Clara in the Big Island Invitational semifinals. UC (3-0) will meet Iowa State (3-1) in tonight's championship game (9 p.m. EST).

        “I thought we played really well the first half, and then we quit playing,” Huggins said. “They beat us twice down the court for layups. We haven't been beaten down the floor twice in the last two years.”

Pete Mickeal | ZOOM |

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        Santa Clara outscored the Bearcats by six in the second half and shot 15-of-27 from the field. UC's players chose not to excuse their late-game effort, even though they held Santa Clara to 39 percent shooting for the game, outrebounded the Broncos by nine and forced 16 turnovers.

        “When you're at Cincinnati, everyone's going to give you their best shot. You're No.1,” said forward Pete Mickeal. “You've got to play 40. When the effort's not there, it kind of gets contagious.”

        Mickeal, who contributed 15 points, was one of five Bearcats who scored in double figures. He also held Santa Clara's leading scorer, Nathan Fast, to three points in the first half and nine for the game.

        The Bearcats were led by 19 points from center Kenyon Martin, who shot 8-of-12 from the field and grabbed eight rebounds. Guard DerMarr Johnson scored 16, guard Steve Logan 12 and freshman guard Kenny Satterfield added 10 assists to his 11 points for his first career double-double.

        Satterfield held back a smile when asked how he felt about such a distinction. “We try not to be selfish,” Satterfield said. “It was a regular game. I'm happy that we won.”

Jermaine Tate | ZOOM |

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        This event does not have the same prestige as many of the early season tournaments, or as impressive a field. It does have the nation's No.1 team, though, and UC can leave here with that distinction not only intact, but enhanced.

        UC did more than enough to beat Santa Clara, and plenty to entertain. The Bearcats performed in the first half as though they were trying for spectacular plays that would draw some attention to this otherwise obscure tournament.

        Coming off a couple of games in which he was uninspired by his performance, Mickeal took the early UC lead into double figures by hanging in the air, catching a lob pass from Logan that squeezed over a defender and laying it off the glass.

        That made it 11-0. Santa Clara had missed its first nine shots by then, three of which were blocked by Bearcats.

        Although Mickeal's play was an amazing effort, it was topped by Johnson in the next two minutes. On the break, Satterfield threw a lob pass toward the backboard that Johnson had to twist behind a defender to catch. Rather than trying to force a shot, Johnson looked back and saw Martin open a few feet up the lane. Without landing, Johnson redirected the ball to Martin, who flashed to the goal and slammed.

Bob Huggins | ZOOM |

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        “The older guys make it easy for us to be comfortable,” Satterfield said. “If coach yells at us, they just tell us not to worry about it, he just wants us to play harder.”

        Huggins chose not to employ the full-court press that worked so well in their first two games.

        “They shoot the ball so well,” Huggins said, “and we didn't want to get spread out and have them get open shots. We wanted them to shoot over us.”

        Jones believes UC is the most physically talented team he's faced during his career, which included a game against the 1998 Kansas team that became a No.1 NCAA Tournament seed.

        “When we first went into the game, we wanted to get our shooters open,” Jones said. “They did a good job of bumping us off screens, and they took us out of the game. They pretty much controlled the whole first half.”

        Jones scored 13 second-half points and Santa Clara got the UC lead down to 19 points, but Johnson helped the Bearcats end that minimal threat with a dynamic reverse layup that was part of a 7-0 run. When he made two free throws a moment later, UC was up 70-44.

        “Cincinnati got to be a little bored being up by 30,” Broncos coach Dick Davey said. “So I don't know if it was us playing better or them not playing as good.”

Healthy Mickeal a happy forward
Iowa St. 77, Arkansas 71

CINCINNATI (88)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Tate            26   0-3   1-3   0-7  0  3    1
Mickeal         31   6-9   3-4   1-5  2  3   15
Martin          21  8-12   3-5   2-8  2  2   19
Johnson         23   5-9   4-5   1-5  1  2   16
Logan           27   4-8   0-0   0-3  4  1   12
Taflinger        2   1-1   0-0   0-0  0  0    2
Stokes           9   0-2   1-2   0-0  1  1    1
Fletcher        20   1-2   7-8   1-3  0  2    9
Satterfield     25   4-4   2-2   0-0 10  3   11
Grove            4   0-1   2-2   0-0  0  2    2
Little          12   0-2   0-0   0-1  0  2    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 29-53 23-31  5-32 20 21   88
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Percentages: FG-.547, FT-.742. 3-Point Goals:
7-15, .467 (Mickeal 0-1, Johnson 2-6, Logan 4-6,
Stokes 0-1, Satterfield 1-1). Team rebounds: 5.
Blocked shots: 5 (Tate 4, Mickeal). Turnovers: 13
(Martin 3, Mickeal 2, Satterfield 2, Grove,
Johnson, Logan, Stokes, Taflinger, Tate). Steals:
9 (Johnson 2, Mickeal 2, Tate 2, Little, Martin,
Satterfield).

SANTA CLARA (67)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Wuschnig        25   1-4   2-2   0-1  0  5    4
Teat            25   0-4   1-4   1-6  0  4    1
J Holmes        19   1-5   0-0   1-3  2  0    2
Jones           28  7-16   1-2   0-1  4  4   19
Fast            25   3-9   2-2   1-4  0  4    9
Warford          2   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Vaka            18   3-8   7-8   1-1  0  0   14
Bobbitt          2   0-0   0-0   0-0  1  0    0
D'oyen          16   2-3   2-2   0-1  0  1    7
B Anderson       2   1-1   0-0   0-0  0  0    3
Emslie          12   2-2   0-0   0-4  0  4    5
Gomes           13   0-0   0-0   0-0  2  2    0
Dely            11   1-1   1-1   0-2  1  1    3
C Anderson       2   0-0   0-0   0-0  1  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 21-53 16-21  4-23 11 25   67
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.396, FT-.762. 3-Point Goals:
9-20, .450 (Wuschnig 0-1, Teat 0-1, Jones 4-8,
Fast 1-4, Vaka 1-3, D'oyen 1-1, B Anderson 1-1,
Emslie 1-1). Team rebounds: 5. Blocked shots: 2
(Emslie 2). Turnovers: 16 (Jones 4, Wuschnig 3, B
Anderson 2, Teat 2, D'oyen, Dely, Fast, Gomes, J
Holmes). Steals: 8 (Jones 4, Bobbitt, Gomes,
Teat, Vaka).
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Cincinnati         48   40  -   88
Santa Clara        21   46  -   67
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None.  A: 1,200. Officials: Norm
Barucki, Luis Fuentes, Michael Irving.