Friday, December 31, 1999
UC 78, Boise State 46
Mickeal scores 23 points in easy win
BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Kenyon Martin
(AP photos)
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BOISE, Idaho — There was nothing humanitarian about the manner in which the UC Bearcats treated their hosts for Thursday night's last-game-of-the-century gathering at the BSU Pavilion.
The No. 3-ranked Bearcats stole the basketball. They blocked shots. They dunked as often as they could get near the goal, and sometimes when it appeared they weren't in the vicinity. They repaid their debt for the Bearcats football team's 1997 Humanitarian Bowl trip with brutality, not kindness.
UC (11-1) left with a 78-46 victory behind 23 points and 14 rebounds from forward Pete Mickeal and a combined 35 points from guards DerMarr Johnson, Steve Logan and Kenny Satterfield.
“I thought defensively they really do a good job, but we created a lot of offense from our defense,” coach Bob Huggins said. “And they're not a team that can make up ground in a hurry.”
Senior forward Ryan Fletcher was not with the Bearcats, a move Huggins would not explain following the game. That affected their depth in the first half, when center Kenyon Martin went to the bench after just three minutes with two personal fouls.
Jermaine Tate
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Forward Jermaine Tate contributed six rebounds, two steals and a block, though, and redshirt freshman Donald Little played a solid 19 minutes in the middle.
“I was proud of them,” Martin said. “They did everything well. They rebounded the ball. They played hard.”
The Bearcats reacted much more lucidly to the matchup zone that Boise State (5-4) presented than when they were in the Cincinnati Gardens to face Xavier. The Broncos worked to push the primary ballhandler out beyond the top of the key, but Logan and Satterfield countered by attacking the lane and breaking down the defense.
Logan scored 11 points and passed for six assists and did not commit a turnover for the second consecutive game. Satterfield wound up with 10 points and five assists.
“We've worked hard on that,” Huggins said. “Dayton did that to us a year ago, and then everybody started doing it. But our ball skills are so much better this year.”
UC made 15 of its first 24 shots, a sizzling .625 percentage that helped them to grow their first-half lead to 35-18. And that was without Martin scoring a point or even taking a shot.
Martin didn't get one off until 19:29 remained in the game, having sat out all but three minutes of the opening half in foul trouble. He ended with eight points and dunked all four of his field goals, half of the eight slams the Bearcats rained on Boise State in the second half.
UC stretched its 37-22 halftime lead to 21 points in the first three minutes after halftime, with Satterfield scoring four points and passing to Mickeal for a layup. Martin at last got a couple of baskets and Mickeal scored another five in a 10-0 surge that made it a 29-point Bearcats lead.
With Johnson hitting twice from 3-point range, UC jumped to an 8-0 lead -- a lot like the 9-0 opening barrage against the Sooners.
As happened in that game, however, Martin picked up his two early fouls and forced Huggins to his bench. Instead of finding Fletcher, a reliable offensive weapon, Huggins could only send out Little.
“We've got to get a little deeper into our bench,” Huggins said. “Donald gave us some good minutes.”
The Bearcats pressured Boise State from the start, a rare manuever for Huggins in a road game. But then, this was a rare road game, UC's first against an opponent from outside the major conferences since it visited Austin Peay on Dec. 31, 1993.
UC not only used its customary 2-2-1 fullcourt press, but also a 2-3 matchup alignment that extended to the midcourt line. The Broncos turned it over four times in the first seven minutes, but otherwise were able to score against the press and trailed only 16-11 after Michael Gely cut through the heart of the UC defense for a wide-open dunk.
With that, Johnson fired the first shot in an 8-0 Bearcats run. Logan scored on a short jumper from the right side, followed by Mickeal putting back his own miss and then a layup by Logan that was generated by freshman Leonard Stokes' steal at midcourt. That made it 24-11 with 10:30 to play before the break.
It was a while before the Bearcats would score again. Their drought lasted more than four minutes and five possessions, but Boise State was empty for eight trips and six minutes and made no progress.
The dearth of big men on the bench led Huggins to employ a lineup without a true power forward for only the second time this season. He put Mickeal in that spot along with Tate and three guards. Tate kept the defense sturdy in the middle; Boise Stat wound up with only 17 field goals, a season-low for a UC opponent, and a .340 shooting percentage. The last four teams the Bearcats faced shot under .400.
“The hard thing is, UNLV is sitting back home (in Cincinnati) watching our game, and we're in Boise,” Huggins said. “We've got to go back, get some rest and go about taking care of our business.”
Fletcher misses game
Bearcats better after XU
CINCINNATI (78)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Tate 30 2-3 1-2 3-6 0 1 5
Mickeal 31 9-12 5-7 6-14 0 2 23
Martin 18 4-6 0-1 0-3 0 5 8
Johnson 19 5-8 2-3 0-0 0 3 14
Logan 32 5-11 1-1 0-1 6 1 11
Satterfield 26 4-6 2-3 0-1 5 1 10
Stokes 18 1-6 2-2 0-1 0 0 4
Dissinger 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Taflinger 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Grove 3 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Little 19 1-1 1-2 1-2 0 1 3
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TOTALS 200 31-54 14-21 10-29 11 14 78
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Percentages: FG-.574, FT-.667. 3-Point Goals:
2-12, .167 (Johnson 2-4, Logan 0-4, Stokes 0-4).
Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 6 (Stokes 2,
Mickeal, Johnson, Tate, Little). Turnovers: 13
(Satterfield 5, Mickeal 3, Martin 2, Tate 2,
Grove). Steals: 13 (Johnson 3, Mickeal 3, Little
2, Satterfield 2, Tate 2, Stokes).
BOISE ST (46)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Armstrong 20 2-3 0-0 0-0 1 2 4
Jackson 27 4-13 1-2 2-5 1 2 11
Morgan 19 0-3 2-2 1-2 0 2 2
Williams 23 0-2 0-0 0-1 1 0 0
Hordemann 27 2-6 0-0 1-1 2 3 5
Lyons 29 4-9 4-4 2-5 1 3 12
Skiffer 21 1-2 2-2 0-1 1 1 4
Fraser-dauphin 14 1-5 0-0 1-3 1 2 2
Gely 18 3-6 0-0 1-2 0 4 6
Hays 2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
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TOTALS 200 17-50 9-10 8-20 8 19 46
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Percentages: FG-.340, FT-.900. 3-Point Goals:
3-14, .214 (Jackson 2-5, Williams 0-1, Hordemann
1-4, Fraser-dauphinee 0-3, Hays 0-1). Team
rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 1 (Morgan).
Turnovers: 23 (Hordemann 5, Lyons 4, Williams 4,
Armstrong 2, Jackson 2, Morgan 2, Skiffer 2,
Fraser-dauphinee, Gely). Steals: 8 (Hordemann 2,
Morgan 2, Skiffer 2, Armstrong, Fraser-dauphinee).
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Cincinnati 37 41 - 78
Boise St 22 24 - 46
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Technical fouls: None. A: 11,518. Officials: Jim
Stupin, Jerry Scott, Mike Partlow.
