Thursday, December 23, 1999

UC 72, Oklahoma 57

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Freshmen pick up slack during foul trouble

BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Kenyon Martin (AP photos) | ZOOM |

        NORMAN, Okla. — For nearly 14 minutes, Kenyon Martin sat in a front-row seat and cheered for his University of Cincinnati teammates. For another 10, his place was taken by fellow senior Pete Mickeal. Through all of that time, their teammates played as though nothing and no one was missing.

        While Martin rested in the first half with two fouls, the No. 4-ranked Bearcats doubled their early lead. While Mickeal sat for the first 10 minutes of the second, they quite nearly did it again.

        With both of them on the floor at the finish Wednesday night, UC concluded a 72-57 victory over the No.21 Sooners (9-1), knocking them from the shrinking list of college basketball's unbeaten teams and extending a winning streak against ranked opponents to seven games.

        “When I've got Ken and Pete sitting over there, the freshmen have got to carry us,” coach Bob Huggins said. “We'd rather play with those guys in the game, certainly, but you have to be able to do that.”

DerMarr Johnson | ZOOM |

        Point guard Kenny Satterfield scored 12 of his 16 points while one senior or the other rested. Shooting guard DerMarr Johnson scored nine of his 12 in that period.

        “Satt played wonderful,” Martin said. “He made big shots, got people shots all night.”

        Johnson also led the Bearcats (9-1) in rebounds, grabbing 11 for his first double-double at UC.

        He'd gotten so many lectures from Huggins about improving on the boards, he and Satterfield exchanged a quick chuckle when the subject of his boardwork was raised.

        “Their freshmen were much, much better than what we saw on tape,” said Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson. “We may not play a team this good for the rest of the year until we get to the NCAA Tournament. Cincinnati didn't become a bad team because they lost to Xavier, and we didn't become bad because we lost to Cincinnati.”

Jermaine Tate puts the body to Sooners star Eduardo Najera. | ZOOM |

        The most amazing thing about Martin's night was how much he got done in the amount of time he played. He was in for 26 minutes and led the Bearcats with 23 points, missing only two of his 13 shots. He grabbed nine rebounds and blocked three shots.

        Power forward Jermaine Tate was even more important to UC's defense. He was primarily responsible for defending Sooners star Eduardo Najera, who finished 6-of-21 from the floor for 16 points, nearly three below his average.

        The 39-29 lead the Bearcats held at halftime was their eighth double-digit lead in 10 games heading into the break. Oklahoma got no closer than seven points in the second half and was left behind as UC made 10-of-15 shots in stretching their lead to 59-40.

        Oklahoma scored only four points, all by Najera, in a stretch that lasted more than nine minutes. They made 4-of-19 in that time and finished the half 3-of-20 from 3-point range.

        The Sooners are one of America's best long-distance shooting teams, but they were worn out by the UC defense and, perhaps even more so by trying to guard the Bearcats.

        “Cincinnati was coming off a loss and had their game face on,” Sampson said. “Our kids were a little starry-eyed.”

Ryan Fletcher on Najera | ZOOM |

        The Sooners opened in a zone defense, but not the 1-3-1 that might have been anticipated after Xavier used it so effectively in the Crosstown Shootout. OU showed the Bearcats a 1-2-2, and they dashed through that for baskets on their first three possessions.

        Oklahoma went through six possessions and four shots without a score, so when it finally tried a man-to-man defense and Johnson tossed in a 22-foot 3-pointer, the Sooners were behind 9-0.

        Everything seemed to be working as well as UC could want until the 13:56 mark of the first half, when Martin picked up his second cheap foul.

        In an odd way, it might even have helped to have Martin out. The Sooners began advancing the ball inside trying to take advantage of his absence, and UC had little trouble cleaning up anything that reached the lane.

        With the exception of a nice power bucket by Najera and his tip-slam near the 8-minute mark, Oklahoma was quiet long enough for the Bearcats to stretch their lead to 34-19.

        Mickeal's technical foul came after being called for a second charge with 2:55 left. He said the referee thought he'd pushed an Oklahoma player but claimed not to be guilty. Huggins kept him on the bench in case his defense would be needed at the end.

        “I'm not even mad at myself like I usually am,” Mickeal said, “because the team played so well.”

Little misses game for personal reasons
Slaise has big night for UC women

CINCINNATI (72)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Tate            28   3-6   0-0   2-3  0  5    6
Mickeal         24   0-2   4-4   1-5  2  3    4
Martin          26 11-13   1-3   1-9  1  3   23
Johnson         29  5-10   1-2  1-11  1  2   12
Logan           35   1-6   2-2   0-2  7  0    4
Satterfield     31  6-10   4-4   1-5  5  2   16
Fletcher        27   2-7   2-2   3-5  0  2    7
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 28-54 14-17  9-40 16 17   72
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.519, FT-.824. 3-Point Goals:
2-10, .200 (Johnson 1-3, Logan 0-2, Satterfield
0-1, Fletcher 1-4). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked
shots: 6 (Martin 3, Mickeal, Tate, Fletcher).
Turnovers: 10 (Johnson 3, Logan 3, Mickeal 2,
Satterfield, Tate). Steals: 3 (Fletcher 2,
Satterfield).

OKLAHOMA (57)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Heskett         27   4-9   0-0   2-2  3  5   12
Najera          34  6-21   4-6  6-11  0  5   16
Stone           14   2-3   0-0   1-2  0  0    4
Price           18   0-3   0-0   0-0  2  1    0
Raymond         36  4-16   2-2   2-2  3  0   13
Johnson         30  3-10   0-0   2-9  2  1    6
Newton           6   0-4   0-0   0-0  0  1    0
Avila           15   2-3   2-2   1-2  0  1    6
Heywood         20   0-1   0-0   3-7  2  4    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 21-70  8-10 17-35 12 18   57
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.300, FT-.800. 3-Point Goals:
7-32, .219 (Heskett 4-9, Najera 0-5, Price 0-2,
Raymond 3-13, Newton 0-3). Team rebounds: 3.
Blocked shots: None. Turnovers: 8 (Price 3,
Raymond 3, Najera 2). Steals: 3 (Heskett,
Heywood, Johnson).
__________________________________
Cincinnati         39   33  -   72
Oklahoma           29   28  -   57
__________________________________
Technical fouls: Cincinnati 1 (Mickeal).  A:
13,023. Officials: Tom O'neill, Ted Hillary,
Curtis Shaw.

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