Monday, January 03, 2000

UC 106, Nevada-Las Vegas 66

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Run-down Rebels can't keep up with Bearcats

BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Kenyon Martin gets one of his six blocks. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        It seemed almost inevitable the Cincinnati Bearcats would reach the 100-point mark in the company of an opponent as vigorous on offense as UNLV. The questions to be answered through 40 minutes of basketball were when they would arrive at that mark, how they would get there, and what sort of scoring total the Rebels might manage for themselves.

        When? With 2:26 left in Sunday afternoon's game at the Shoemaker Center.

        How? A pull-up jumper by Bearcats freshman Leonard Stokes, who was playing point guard at the time.

        And the Rebels? They were left well behind the Bearcats by then and wound up on the (very) short end of a 106-66 final score.

Martin had 21 points. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        UNLV coach Bill Bayno said before the game he considered No.3-ranked UC (12-1) a great team. What was his impression following the Rebels' worst defeat since 1971 and their second-worst since the team began playing exclusively four-year schools in 1966-67?

        “What do you think?” Bayno said. “Greater. I said I thought they were were the No. 1 team in the country. They're big. They're physical, and they just come at you. That's what they're good at.”

        The Bearcats have had four wins by at least 40 points in the previous three seasons but hadn't beaten a major-conference opponent this badly since the third game of the 1996-97 season, when they smacked Rutgers by the same margin.

        UC's top three scorers — DerMarr Johnson (22 points), Kenyon Martin (21) and Pete Mickeal (16) — combined to shoot .647. All 10 of UC's scholarship players scored. The Bearcats got seven rebounds from reserve forward Ryan Fletcher and five from center Donald Little and beat the Rebels on the boards by 18. Rebels guard Trevor Diggs scored 18 points, but shot 6-of-20 to get there.

Martin mixes up with Sylvester Dotson. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        “They go after you, and we were prepared for that,” Martin said. “We just came to play — that was our main focus, getting out to an early start and keeping the tempo up.”

        UC might as well have flashed its early game plan on the Shoe's scoreboard, for all the good it would have done UNLV (8-3). On each of UC's first three possessions, point guard Steve Logan bounced a soft entry pass inside to Martin, who was guarded by freshman Dalron Johnson.

        Martin turned two into turnaround jumpers, and was fouled on the other. Bayno replaced Johnson with 6-foot-7 junior Sylvester Dotson, which neither prevented Martin from scoring one possession later nor the Bearcats from adding another four points to open the game with an 11-0 lead.

        “We wanted to throw it on the block early to try and get started,” UC coach Bob Huggins said. “We got the matchup we wanted; they had a freshman guarding him, and we thought we could take advantage of that.”

        UNLV intended to emphasize its star center, Kaspars Kambala, but UC's Jermaine Tate made that difficult, and the Bearcats' perimeter defense made it nearly impossible.

        The Rebels turned over the ball on their first four trips, and took four minutes before getting Kambala his first touch. He finished the first half with as many fouls (four) as points. After averaging 20 points going into the game, he squeaked into double figures with 10 on Sunday.

        “I think he was intimidated,” Bayno said. “For him to say anything else would be a cop-out.”

        Even as their lead approached the 40-point mark, the Bearcats played an intensity that sometimes jeopardized their own safety. With the lead at 37 and just 4:06 to play, Fletcher took a flying leap at Kambala before he could complete a layup, then nearly tumbled headfirst into the lap of Indiana Pacers executive Billy Knight, seated at a baseline press table.

        “I think this is the hardest we've played for 40 minutes,” Huggins said. “We're a work in progress. We're getting better.”

Drill helped UC slow UNLV's Dickel

UNLV (66)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Johnson         17   1-3   2-2   2-4  0  2    4
Stewart          6   0-1   0-0   0-0  0  1    0
Kambala         23   4-9   2-2   1-3  1  4   10
Diggs           34  6-20   3-5   1-3  2  4   18
Dickel          33   1-7   0-0   1-3  6  4    2
Brotherson      31  4-13   6-8   1-2  2  3   15
Dotson          29   3-5   3-6   4-8  0  2    9
Richardson      18   3-6   0-0   1-3  0  2    6
Epps             9   1-2   0-0   1-1  0  0    2
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 23-66 16-23 12-27 11 22   66
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.348, FT-.696. 3-Point Goals:
4-14, .286 (Diggs 3-11, Dickel 0-1, Brotherson
1-2). Team rebounds: 6. Blocked shots: 5 (Johnson
2, Brotherson, Dotson, Epps). Turnovers: 24
(Diggs 8, Brotherson 3, Kambala 3, Dickel 2,
Dotson 2, Richardson 2, Stewart 2, Johnson).
Steals: 8 (Brotherson 2, Diggs 2, Dickel, Dotson,
Kambala, Richardson).

CINCINNATI (106)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Tate            24   2-2   2-3   1-3  2  2    6
Mickeal         25   5-8   3-4   3-9  2  4   16
Martin          20  8-13   5-6   2-6  1  3   21
Johnson         23  9-13   1-3   4-7  0  1   22
Logan           29   3-7   0-0   1-2  8  2    6
Satterfield     25   2-7   5-6   1-3  7  2    9
Stokes          12   2-5   0-0   1-1  1  2    5
Dissinger        3   0-2   0-0   1-2  1  0    0
Fletcher        22   2-6   2-3   1-7  2  3    7
Taflinger        3   0-0   0-0   1-1  1  0    0
Grove            4   3-4   0-0   0-2  0  0    6
Little          10   3-6   2-2   3-5  1  3    8
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 39-73 20-27 19-48 26 22  106
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.534, FT-.741. 3-Point Goals:
8-16, .500 (Mickeal 3-4, Johnson 3-5, Logan 0-1,
Satterfield 0-1, Stokes 1-2, Fletcher 1-3). Team
rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 12 (Martin 6, Little
3, Johnson 2, Fletcher). Turnovers: 19
(Satterfield 7, Tate 4, Mickeal 3, Fletcher 2,
Johnson, Logan, Martin). Steals: 7 (Martin 2,
Tate 2, Johnson, Mickeal, Satterfield).
__________________________________
Unlv               34   32  -   66
Cincinnati         55   51  -  106
__________________________________
Technical fouls: Cincinnati 1 (Mickeal).  A:
13,176. Officials: Steve Welmer, Mark Whitehead,
Bobby Hunt.

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