Sunday, January 30, 2000

UC 89, South Florida 72

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Bearcats come fron behind for 20th win

BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jermaine Tate and Pete Mickeal pin South Florida's B.B. Walton. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

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        It took awhile for the ball to land, as Steve Logan's 3-point shots always do. By the time it fell to the ground, having passed through the basket along the way, Logan already was in position to celebrate with Kenny Satterfield.

        Satterfield had given Logan the ball, and Logan's jump shot had given the Cincinnati Bearcats the lead, which was more of an event in this game than it typically is. So was the low-five UC's two point guards exchanged at that moment.

        Saturday night's Conference USA game against South Florida at the Shoemaker Center was the second in which Satterfield started for the No.1-ranked Bearcats, with Logan coming off the bench. In scoring 19 points in an 89-72 victory for UC (20-1, 8-0 C-USA), Logan declared he would not allow the change in his job description to alter his production. Or his demeanor.

Steve Logan (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        “Even when I wasn't starting, that's something we've done all year. If I gave him a good pass, if he made the shot, he'd slap me five,” Satterfield said. “We've still been speaking. Everything's still fine. Coach decided to go with something else, and we've just got to go with it.”

        Logan's consecutive 3-pointers near the 5-minute mark of the first half completed the Bearcats' recovery from a dismal start that coach Bob Huggins explained simply — “We weren't ready to go” — and that dropped them into a 14-5 deficit in the first five minutes.

        Logan was 3-of-4 from long distance, but it was more than jump shooting that distinguished his performance. He pulled down three rebounds in traffic against the taller Bulls (12-8, 3-4), passed for three assists and did not commit a turnover until he was called for carrying the ball with 1:46 left. The only effect of that error was to hasten the entrance of walk-ons Dave Dissinger and Chris Taflinger and Logan's own well-earned rest.

Kenyon Martin reacts to a foul call (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        “I think Lo handled it well,” said forward Ryan Fletcher, who scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds to give UC 31 points off the bench.

        “I kind of talked to him a little bit in pregame meal. He was kind of disappointed that he wasn't getting to start, and I was kind of in his ear telling him, "You need to go out and play well anyways. You're not going to get anything accomplished by pouting, not playing hard, not playing your game.'”

        Perhaps all the Bearcats needed such a pep talk. This was as mortal as they have appeared for a while, the first time they were in jeopardy on their home court and only the third time they had trailed by as much as nine points.

        South Florida took its last nine-point lead at the 10:33 mark of the first half, when center Scott Johnson answered a Kenyon Martin slam with consecutive 3-pointers.

Ryan Fletcher (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        “I told them to give me the ball,” Martin said. “We couldn't get anything going, so I told them to give me the ball.” Thus did the Bearcats soar from a 26-19 deficit to a 37-28 lead behind another dominant sequence by Martin.

        Martin scored five of his 19 points to get the Bearcats started on their 18-2 revival. He completed it with two sizzling passes that led to baskets by Fletcher.

        Martin wrapped the first around a defender in the lane to Fletcher on the opposite side. Fletcher scored from there to make it 32-28, powered home another basket as he was fouled by Chonsey Asbury for a three-point play, and then accepted an entry pass from Martin and spun around his man to make it a nine-point UC lead.

        UC took a 40-36 lead into the break and scored 13 points in the first four minutes of the second half, with forward Pete Mickeal getting six of his 16 in that stretch.

        “I thought the difference in the basketball game was they were more mature and mentally and physically tough,” USF coach Seth Greenberg said. “They kind of wore us down, and we just weren't as tough as we needed to be to win this game against a team of this caliber.”

        South Florida's B.B. Waldon, the leading scorer in C-USA, arrived late and departed early. He was benched at the start for tardiness at Friday's practice and was kept down a while because of the Bulls' early effectiveness. He fouled out with 8:14 remaining, having played just 15 minutes and produced nine points and two rebounds.

        Asbury, who had scored seven of USF's 13 points while Waldon sat, fouled out soon after Waldon when he hit UC guard DerMarr Johnson as he jumped to catch a lob pass.

        That appeared to inspire Johnson, who gave UC its first 20-point lead with a 3-pointer. Johnson then rejected a long-distance shot by Scott Johnson, recovered the ball and drove for a slam to make it 83-61. Johnson was shut out at halftime but finished with 14 points.

        “I think we showed everyone who said we couldn't play the second half that we could,” Martin said.

Grove banished from bench

SOUTH FLORIDA (72)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Asbury          22   3-8   2-4   3-6  3  5    8
A Jackson       35  5-11   0-2   1-3  4  2   11
Johnson         23   3-9   0-0   0-4  1  4    8
Smith           35  7-15   2-2  3-10  4  3   19
Kohn            22   1-6   0-0   0-2  2  2    3
Sanders         15   1-1   0-0   1-2  0  2    2
Dawson           5   1-1   0-0   1-1  1  0    2
Reeves          24   3-7   4-5   1-1  0  4   10
Waldon          15   4-8   1-2   0-2  0  5    9
Mcdonald         4   0-1   0-1   1-1  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 28-67  9-16 11-32 15 27   72
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.418, FT-.563. 3-Point Goals:
7-22, .318 (Asbury 0-1, A Jackson 1-2, Johnson
2-7, Smith 3-5, Kohn 1-6, Waldon 0-1). Team
rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 1 (Waldon).
Turnovers: 12 (Johnson 2, Reeves 2, Smith 2,
Waldon 2, A Jackson, Asbury, Kohn, Sanders).
Steals: 2 (Sanders 2).

CINCINNATI (89)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Tate             7   1-3   0-0   0-0  0  1    2
Mickeal         32   2-4 11-17  4-10  2  1   16
Martin          33  8-14   3-4  1-10  3  3   19
Johnson         23   4-8   4-4   0-2  2  3   14
Satterfield     28   2-5   3-4   0-0  4  2    7
Stokes           4   0-1   0-0   0-0  1  0    0
Dissinger        2   0-1   0-0   1-1  0  0    0
Logan           30   5-8   6-6   1-3  3  0   19
Fletcher        28  5-10   2-3   2-5  3  2   12
Taflinger        2   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Little          11   0-0   0-0   0-3  0  5    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 27-54 29-38  9-34 18 17   89
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.500, FT-.763. 3-Point Goals:
6-15, .400 (Mickeal 1-2, Johnson 2-4, Satterfield
0-1, Stokes 0-1, Dissinger 0-1, Logan 3-4,
Fletcher 0-2). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 9
(Martin 4, Tate 2, Johnson 2, Little). Turnovers:
13 (Satterfield 7, Fletcher 2, Martin 2,
Dissinger, Logan). Steals: 2 (Fletcher 2).
__________________________________
South Florida      36   36  -   72
Cincinnati         40   49  -   89
__________________________________
Technical fouls: South Florida 1 (Bench).  A:
13,176. Officials: Ed Hightower, Terry Moore, Dan
Fouser.

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