Sunday, December 12, 1999

UC 74, Mississippi Valley State 48

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Bored Bearcats lag in second half

BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jermaine Tate (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        It's not certain how loudly Bob Huggins delivered his postgame message to his UC men's basketball team. He certainly had turned down his volume by the close of their game Saturday night against Mississippi Valley State.

        As No. 1 UC completed a 74-48 victory over the Delta Devils before a capacity crowd of 13,176 at the Shoemaker Center, Huggins sat the final minutes with his chin in his hand, watching while the Bearcats completed a dismal half in which they missed 20 of their 25 shots.

        When it was over, though, he made his point. He challenged the Bearcats (7-0) by dangling their promise before them.

        “There's very few people who have a chance to be special, to be great,” Huggins said. “I mean, we're going to be good. We're going to win our, whatever — 25, 26, 27. We've done that for how long? If that's what we want to do, then we're on course to do that. If we want to be great, we're way off course. Way, way, way off course.”

Kenny Satterfield (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        UC had just completed a five-day stretch in which it built double-digit first-half leads against top 25 opponents Gonzaga and North Carolina and held off late rallies to remain undefeated.

        Tar Heels coach Bill Guthridge proclaimed the Bearcats were among the best teams he'd seen in the past several seasons.

        ESPN analyst Dick Vitale was typically apoplectic regarding the Bearcats' high-flying talent.

        Huggins wants more from the Bearcats than a team that looks great in its uniforms and plays spectacularly at times.

        “We have to do things right,” Huggins said. “We don't finish things. We haven't finished things all year. We have too many guys stand and watch and not enough guys play.”

Pete Mickeal (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        This isn't so much of a problem when they show up for the tip-off. UC was customarily brilliant in the first 20 minutes against MVSU.

        The Bearcats held the Delta Devils (1-7) to just 13 points at the break, the lowest first-half scoring output of any Bearcats opponent since December 1983. That put the Delta Devils in reasonably good company, since it was Kentucky that scored only 11 on that night, but the Bearcats had to stall to keep the Wildcats that quiet. This time, they pressed.

        It did not matter how quick the pace of the game was; the Devils made only 6-of-28 from the field.

        “We were nervous coming into a situation like this,” said Devils coach Lafayette Stribling. “Our guard play was terrible. We're a better basketball team than that. I can understand them being shaky, but not shaky enough to score only 13 points.”

        UC shot 56 percent in the first half, when guard Kenny Satterfield scored 10 of his team-high 16 points and Der Marr Johnson scored nine of his 12.

        The Delta Devils set up a 2-3 zone defense that made building a big lead even less work for UC than it figured to be. Instead of having to screen and move through their offensive sets, the Bearcats were able to let the ball do the work as they searched for open shots.

        They passed well enough to find the room for six 3-point shots in opening a 45-13 halftime lead, two each from Satterfield and Johnson and one from Ryan Fletcher and Steve Logan, who scored 13 points.

        Johnson entered on an 0-for-8 streak from 3-point range, but he hit his first try on the Bearcats' second trip and another with 8:51 left to make it 28-9.

        “I don't really think I'm shooting open shots,” Johnson said. “I've been forcing myself to shoot 3s, and I don't think I've been working enough on other stuff.”

        The one thing the zone worked against was UC center Kenyon Martin, who attempted only two shots by the six-minute mark, both misses. He ended the game 1-of-6 from the field for six points.

        In the second half, UC hit only two of its 12 3-point attempts. The Bearcats predictably lost interest in the second half and that caused them to lose the range.

        After a fastbreak layup by Logan that made it 60-21, the Bearcats went through 19 possessions without a basket. That drought was broken by Satterfield when he drove for a fastbreak layup with 1:50 left.

        Huggins had hoped the Bearcats would be able to improve their rebounding and transition offense in the second half. Instead they were beaten on the boards and wound up with their lowest 20-minute shooting percentage this season.

        “We need to get a whole lot better in the second half,” Huggins said. “The whole deal is to try to get better, and all we talked about at halftime was getting better.

        “We said, this is what we want to work on, this is what we want to emphasize in the second half — and we didn't do it. We work hard, get to a point, and then we just kind of take everything easy.”

Huggins looking for killer instinct
Land's eligibility to be evaluated
Shootout week starts today for fans

MISS VALLEY ST (48)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Robinson         4   0-0   0-0   0-1  0  0    0
Williams        11   0-0   0-0   2-3  0  1    0
Jordan          23  5-13   0-0   4-7  1  5   10
Jefferson       31  3-15   2-2   0-2  3  3   10
Dotson          18   1-4   0-0   0-3  1  1    3
Edwards         10   2-4   0-1   1-1  0  0    4
Metcalf         18   0-2   0-0   0-0  1  2    0
Thornton        31  6-13   0-0  2-10  0  3   15
Nelson           8   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  2    0
Redd             2   0-0   0-0   0-1  0  0    0
Blackmon         4   0-1   0-1   0-2  0  1    0
Jackson         12   2-6   1-2   2-5  0  2    5
Mcinnis         21   0-3   1-2   2-2  1  3    1
Burks            6   0-2   0-0   0-1  1  0    0
Conley           1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 19-63   4-8 13-38  8 23   48
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.302, FT-.500. 3-Point Goals:
6-15, .400 (Jefferson 2-8, Dotson 1-2, Edwards
0-2, Thornton 3-3). Team rebounds: 7. Blocked
shots: 5 (Mcinnis 2, Jordan 2, Jefferson).
Turnovers: 20 (Jefferson 4, Dotson 3, Thornton 3,
Blackmon 2, Conley 2, Metcalf 2, Redd, Robinson,
Williams). Steals: 6 (Jefferson 2, Dotson,
Jackson, Robinson, Thornton).

CINCINNATI (74)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Johnson         24   3-8   4-6   1-3  0  0   12
Tate            22   3-4   1-1   0-2  2  2    7
Martin          22   1-6   4-9   3-9  3  1    6
Logan           23  5-12   0-0   0-2  3  0   13
Mickeal         30   3-9   2-5  2-12  2  5    8
Stokes          16   0-3   2-2   1-1  1  1    2
Satterfield     25  5-11   4-4   1-2  3  2   16
Fletcher        14   2-2   0-0   0-1  2  0    5
Land             1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Taflinger        2   0-0   0-0   0-2  0  1    0
Grove           12   1-1   3-7   2-4  0  0    5
Little           9   0-1   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 23-57 20-34 10-38 16 12   74
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.404, FT-.588. 3-Point Goals:
8-25, .320 (Johnson 2-6, Logan 3-7, Mickeal 0-3,
Stokes 0-3, Satterfield 2-5, Fletcher 1-1). Team
rebounds: 8. Blocked shots: 4 (Johnson, Martin,
Satterfield, Little). Turnovers: 14 (Satterfield
3, Fletcher 2, Logan 2, Mickeal 2, Tate 2,
Johnson, Stokes). Steals: 9 (Tate 3, Stokes 2,
Logan, Martin, Mickeal, Satterfield).
__________________________________
Miss Valley St     13   35  -   48
Cincinnati         45   29  -   74
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None.  A: 13,176. Officials:
Larry Lembo, Hal Lusk, Sam Croft.

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