Friday, February 04, 2000

UC 70, UNC Charlotte 62

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Bearcats' victory is 13th straight

BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

DerMarr Johnson blocks a shot (AP photos) | ZOOM |

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        CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When the clock froze with 2:36 of basketball time remaining, there was as little noise inside Halton Arena as one will hear with the Cincinnati Bearcats on the court.

        No. 1-ranked UC had survived the taunting, the objects thrown onto the floor and, most important, a determined effort by Conference USA rival UNC Charlotte to earn a 70-62 victory Thursday night and extend its winning streak to 13 games.

        “We tried to tell the guys who hadn't been here what to expect, how it's going to be, not to let it bother you,” said senior center Kenyon Martin, who led the Bearcats (21-1, 9-0) with 20 points. “They've been throwing things since I've been here.”

        UC was neither fazed by the hazing they received from the capacity crowd of 9,105 nor the dogged pursuit by the 49ers (12-9, 4-4), who lost their first home game of the season. The 49ers rallied from a 12-point deficit that stood with 15:41 left in the game following a 3-pointer by UC freshman guard DerMarr Johnson to 45-43 with 8:46 remaining.

        “A team's going to make a run,” Martin said, “and you've got to be men and stand up to it.”

Kenyon Martin | ZOOM |

        Freshman point guard Kenny Satterfield endured a frustrating first half in which he had as many turnovers (four) as points and energized the Bearcats' offense by attacking the goal. He scored nine of his 13 points and passed for four of his five assists in the second half.

        “Satt's a competitor,” UC coach Bob Huggins said. “He didn't play well in the first half, was forcing things, but he did a lot better in the second half getting the ball where it needs to go.”

        Of UNCC's first 25 points of the second half, 11 came at the foul line and nine game on 3-pointers by guard Jobey Thomas, who led the 49ers with 19 points.

        After UNCC had pulled to within 45-43 with 8:09 left, Satterfield drew a foul on a drive and made one free throw, and his miss on the second was batted out of bounds. Following a timeout, UC got the ball to Steve Logan for a 3-pointer that doubled the lead to six.

Bob Huggins | ZOOM |

        Power forward Jermaine Tate, like Satterfield, dug himself from a disappointing first half to help the Bearcats win. He played only seven minutes and managed two turnovers and two fouls in that time, but made one of UC's biggest plays of the second half. He rebounded a missed shot by Satterfield and dunked while being fouled, lifting the Bearcats to a 52-43 lead.

        UNCC cut it briefly back to four, but the Bearcats responded with two free throws from forward Pete Mickeal, one by Martin and then a block by Martin that started a break finished by a pull-up jumper from Satterfield.

        The ball was not even thrown into the air before UNCC fans were directing a marginally profane chant at Huggins.

        The Bearcats have become the rival of choice for UNCC, mostly because the 49ers are the only team that even remotely challenged UC's domi nance of Conference USA. UNCC owns two regular-season victories and one league tournament win against UC in the past three seasons.

Kenyon Martin | ZOOM |

        This was UNCC's first capacity crowd of the season, and the sixth in the four-year history of the Halton Arena. Three of those were games against UC.

        It was not a thing of beauty, but neither was it the spanking the Bearcats have applied to so many other C-USA opponents, even on the road. It was as ferociously competitive as a basketball game can be, though, with UC pleased to carry a 28-17 lead into halftime and fortunate not to be caught in the closing stages of the game.

        The Bearcats did not get a double-digit lead until the final possession of the first 20 minutes, taking advantage of a rare defensive breakdown by the 49ers with a Logan 3-pointer just as the buzzer sounded.

        The Bearcats' defense worked spectacularly at the start, with UNCC missing its first 10 shots from the field, but on offense they were tentative and sloppy. Satterfield committed three turnovers and UC gave away the ball at the rate of more than once per minute over the first nine.

        UNCC scored nearly half as many baskets on its first three trips of the second half as in 30 before the break. KenKay Jones and Tremaine Gardiner both slammed off of set plays, and Thomas made his first 3-pointer — and the 49ers second in 18 attempts — to cut the Bearcats' lead to seven points.

        After playing 17 minutes of the first half without taking a shot, UC freshman guard DerMarr Johnson struck two times from long distance in the first five minutes of the second.

        The UC defense, so oppressive in the first half that UNCC shot under .200 from the field, struggled noticeably early in the second. The Bearcats fouled so often the 49ers were shooting the bonus with 13:30 remaining in the game and the double-bonus with 9:57 left.

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CINCINNATI (70)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Tate            21   1-3   2-2   4-5  0  3    4
Mickeal         38   2-4   3-4   1-3  4  2    7
Martin          35  5-15 10-12   1-8  0  3   20
Johnson         31   3-4   1-2   1-6  1  4    9
Satterfield     32   4-8   5-7   1-3  5  3   13
Logan           19   2-3   2-6   0-2  1  4    8
Fletcher        13   3-8   2-3   3-3  0  1    9
Little          11   0-1   0-0   1-5  0  2    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 20-46 25-36 12-35 11 22   70
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.435, FT-.694. 3-Point Goals:
5-10, .500 (Johnson 2-2, Satterfield 0-2, Logan
2-3, Fletcher 1-3). Team rebounds: 5. Blocked
shots: 7 (Martin 3, Little 2, Satterfield,
Johnson). Turnovers: 18 (Satterfield 5, Fletcher
3, Johnson 2, Logan 2, Martin 2, Tate 2, Little,
Mickeal). Steals: 5 (Martin 2, Satterfield 2,
Mickeal).

UNC CHARLOTTE (62)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Zimmerman       31  3-11   6-6   3-6  1  4   13
Gardiner        27  4-13   2-2   0-2  1  3   10
Jones           15   1-2   0-0   2-2  0  5    2
Guevara         27   2-7   2-2   1-2  3  3    8
Thomas          29  5-15   5-6   1-6  0  1   19
Smith           10   1-4   0-0   0-0  1  4    2
Helliwell        1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Hill            24   0-4   3-4   3-4  3  2    3
Whitehead       25   2-3   1-3   2-7  1  4    5
Neely           11   0-4   0-1   3-3  0  2    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 18-63 19-24 15-32 10 28   62
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.286, FT-.792. 3-Point Goals:
7-30, .233 (Zimmerman 1-3, Gardiner 0-5, Guevara
2-5, Thomas 4-11, Smith 0-2, Hill 0-2, Neely
0-2). Team rebounds: 6. Blocked shots: 1
(Whitehead). Turnovers: 10 (Zimmerman 3, Jones 2,
Guevara, Hill, Neely, Thomas, Whitehead). Steals:
11 (Guevara 3, Zimmerman 3, Gardiner, Hill,
Smith, Thomas, Whitehead).
__________________________________
Cincinnati         28   42  -   70
Unc Charlotte      17   45  -   62
__________________________________
Technical fouls: Unc Charlotte 1 (Smith).  A:
9,105. Officials: Ken Clougherty, Gerald
Boudreaux, Tim Higgins.

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