Monday, March 06, 2000
XAVIER NOTEBOOK
Cheers, dunk Harris' highlight
BY MICHAEL PERRY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
With 91/2 minutes to go Sunday, the Cincinnati Gardens crowd started chanting, “Obi! Obi!” The fans wanted seldom-used senior Obi Harris to get some playing time in his last regular-season home game.
“I love the crowd,” Harris said later. “The crowd has been keeping me going all year. I'm very appreciative to them. That's a big part of the game I'll miss.”
He entered with 1:51 remaining and finished with two rebounds and three points, including a rebound dunk with 13.5 seconds left.
“It felt great,” Harris said. “It's good to go out with a bang. I made the best of it. We got the victory, and that's the most important thing.”
Harris' parents were unable to attend the game and participate in the pregame ceremony honoring the seniors, so teammates Brandon McIntosh and Aaron Turner accompanied Harris to midcourt.
“Those are probably the first two guys that I really bonded with when I got here,” Harris said. “At the last minute, they said I wasn't in it by myself and that they would walk out there with me. It was kind of reassuring to have someone there in my corner.”
Film at 11
Best postgame scene: The Xavier players gathered around a TV in their locker room watching a highlight tape of recruit Romain Guessagba-Sato.
The Dayton Christian High School senior, who signed a letter of intent in November, was at Sunday's game — one of the many he has attended. During the tape filled with impressive dunks, several Musketeers turned away, shaking their heads and smiling.
Good riddance
One guy not shedding a tear for Xavier's finale in the Cincinnati Gardens: Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins. The Bearcats are 2-4 at the Gardens under Huggins.
“I have no fond memories of the Gardens, I really don't,” Huggins told Enquirer reporter Mike DeCourcy.
Is he glad to see the Musketeers leave?
“Oh, I don't care,” he said. “My first year we lost a game there ... and then we lost one when Brian Grant gets a rebound at the end of the game, and then we lose the one this year. So, we've lost three games right at the end.”
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