Thursday, January 20, 2000

UC 75, MEMPHIS 55

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Martin records triple-double

BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Kenyon Martin makes one of his 10 blocks. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

When the evening began, Kenyon Martin needed to score 18 points to reach the 1,000 mark for his career as a Cincinnati Bearcat. When the game began, it appeared as though he intended to block 1,000 shots before the final buzzer.

        Of the first 13 shots Memphis attempted in Wednesday night's game at the Shoemaker Center, Martin rejected six. He didn't relent until 2:44 remained in the game, when his career-best 10th block gave him his second triple-double at UC and the Bearcats were safely approaching a 75-55 Conference USA victory.

        “I've never had it like that,” Martin said. “They just kept coming, so I guess they didn't learn.”

        Martin also finished with a career-high 28 points and 13 rebounds, all of which UC (17-1, 5-0) needed to preserve its No.1 national ranking.

        The Tigers (8-9, 1-3) could have retreated after opening the game in humiliating style — 1-of-20 from the field, with the one basket coming on a goaltend call against Martin — and maybe some of them did. The Memphis starting five scored a combined 17 points and shot 8-of-40 from the field. But guard Keiron Shine came off the bench to hit four 3-pointers and score 20, and forward Shamel Jones squeezed inside for 12 points.

        UC's lead stood at only 52-45 with 7:57 remaining, before Martin dunked twice in scoring seven consecutive points for the Bearcats that broke open the game.

        “It's conference play,” Martin said. “I don't think anyone will quit now, because every game counts. They could have quit, but they didn't.

        “They made a lot of shots, got a lot of open looks. Our defense wasn't doing it, so I had to score some points, and I did.”

Pete Mickeal. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        Memphis aligned itself for much of the night in a 2-3 zone defense that presented the Bearcats with all the open 3-pointers they could want but way more than they could make.

        UC was just 3-of-18 from long distance, with guard Steve Logan 2-of-5 but any of his teammates who tried to fire struggling mightily.

        “We got good shots,” said forward Pete Mickeal, who scored 13. “For some reason, we haven't been making our shots, but we know they're going to fall sooner or later.”

        Although he was 0-of-5 on 3-pointers, freshman guard DerMarr Johnson had his most active and authoritative game in nearly a month.

        He grabbed six rebounds, dunked four of his 10 points and executed the game's slickest pass when he faked a ball reversal against the Memphis zone and instead fed the ball inside to Martin for a score that put UC in front, 56-46, with 7:35 left.

Donald Little (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        After a dismal .387 effort in the first half, the Bearcats made better than half their shots following the break and committed only six turnovers.

        As thoroughly as they dominated Memphis at the defensive end, the Bearcats probably should have been ahead by more than 18-10 when a television timeout was called with 7:17 left.

        After point guard Kenny Satterfield scored on a layup, then stole the inbounds pass and scored again to make it 18-6, the Bearcats didn't get another point for just under four minutes, when forward Jermaine Tate made the second of two free throws.

        “I think our spacing is not very good, and we're not passing the ball the way we were,” coach Bob Huggins said. “For maybe a two-week period, we passed the ball as well as any team I've had, and we're back to grabbing it and holding it. We're not doing as well making the extra pass.”

        Martin would have had his triple-double sooner were it not for an iffy goaltend call by official Tom Rucker, who blew his whistle after Martin sent an attempted hook by Memphis freshman Earl Barron sailing to midcourt.

        Memphis did not have a shot actually go through the basket until tossed in a 3-pointer from the right wing with 10:49 on the clock.

        “We just had to make sure we kept taking the ball at him,” said Memphis' Jones, who was left nearly speechless by Martin's effort. “He's a great shot-blocker, but we couldn't let him dictate what we do. We were trying to get away from him. He found us.”

        Martin glanced at the scoreboard with just under 10 minutes left and saw that he had reached 17 points for the game, and only then did he think about climbing onto 1,000 plateau against the Tigers.

        At the start of the season, Martin said, he never considered he could reach that mark. “Since I did it ... it's good to be on the list, I guess.”

Martin USA Today's best
Where layups go to die

MEMPHIS (55)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Barron          26  3-10   0-1   2-3  2  1    6
Forman          18   0-1   0-0   1-2  0  2    0
Wise            30  3-13   3-4  4-10  0  3    9
Trask           35   0-7   0-0   2-3  5  1    0
Moody           24   2-9   0-0   0-3  0  0    4
Shine           24  6-11   4-6   1-2  2  0   20
London           5   0-1   0-0   0-1  1  0    0
Chatman         19   1-5   0-0   1-3  4  2    3
Harris           4   0-3   1-2   3-3  0  1    1
Jones           15  5-11   2-2   1-1  0  2   12
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 20-71 10-15 15-31 14 12   55
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.282, FT-.667. 3-Point Goals:
5-16, .313 (Trask 0-2, Moody 0-4, Shine 4-7,
Chatman 1-2, Jones 0-1). Team rebounds: 9.
Blocked shots: 1 (Wise). Turnovers: 19 (Jones 4,
Forman 3, Wise 3, Chatman 2, Shine 2, Barron,
Harris, Moody, Trask). Steals: 7 (Moody 3, Jones
2, Shine, Trask).

CINCINNATI (75)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Tate            29   1-4   1-2  4-10  3  1    3
Mickeal         36   5-8   3-4   3-3  2  2   13
Martin          28 11-18   6-7  4-13  2  3   28
Johnson         29  5-13   0-0   1-7  3  2   10
Logan           29   3-8   2-2   1-1  4  1   10
Satterfield     20  3-10   0-0   0-3  3  2    7
Stokes           4   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Dissinger        1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Fletcher        18   2-3   0-0   1-4  1  3    4
Taflinger        1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Little           5   0-1   0-0   0-0  1  1    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 30-65 12-15 14-41 19 15   75
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.462, FT-.800. 3-Point Goals:
3-18, .167 (Mickeal 0-3, Johnson 0-5, Logan 2-5,
Satterfield 1-4, Fletcher 0-1). Team rebounds: 4.
Blocked shots: 13 (Martin 10, Tate 3). Turnovers:
15 (Satterfield 4, Tate 4, Logan 3, Martin 2,
Mickeal). Steals: 6 (Martin 2, Fletcher, Mickeal,
Satterfield, Tate).
__________________________________
Memphis            23   32  -   55
Cincinnati         30   45  -   75
__________________________________
Technical fouls: Memphis 1 (Bench).  Cincinnati 1
(Fletcher).  A: 13,176. Officials: Ted Hillary,
Steve Olson, Tom Rucker.

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