Saturday, November 17, 2001
No. 18 Oklahoma St. 69, Cincinnati 62
By OWEN CANFIELD
AP Sports Writer
STILLWATER, Okla. — Cincinnati guard Steve Logan could have used a little help against No. 18 Oklahoma State.
Logan scored 31 points, including 25 in the second half, but no teammate scored more than 12 as Oklahoma State beat the Bearcats 69-62 in the opener for both teams Friday night.
The Cowboys backcourt of Victor Williams and Maurice Baker made up for Logan. Williams scored 15 of his 20 points in the second half and Baker had 16 points and nine rebounds.
“Our backcourt is one of the best five in the country,” said forward Andre Williams, who is not related to Victor.
It needed to be, as both offenses struggled to find any consistency against rugged man-to-man defenses.
Cincinnati had just five field goals and 16 points at halftime, wound up 1-of-13 from 3-point range and shot 38 percent overall. Oklahoma State hit 45 percent of its shots, but needed a 16-of-27 performance in the second half to reach that mark. The Cowboys also committed 17 turnovers.
“This game was a grinder,” Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton said. “When defenses plays as well as they did in the first half, it becomes pretty hard to run your offense like you would like to run it.”
A breakaway basket by Williams gave the Cowboys their biggest lead, 33-20, three minutes into the second half. Logan helped lead Cincinnati back and the Bearcats only trailed 45-41at the midway point.
Baker then hit a 3-pointer and Williams make consecutive jumpers from behind the line to push the lead to 54-44. Cincinnati got no closer than six the rest of the way, as the Cowboys made big baskets when needed and sank seven free throws in the final 1:28.
“We're down six and we're running our matchup defense, and they score on a ball that gets knocked through the lane and on two offensive rebounds,” Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins said. “They're a good offensive rebounding team and we're probably the worst rebounding team in captivity.”
The Bearcats got beat badly on the backboards early in the game, but played better after that and wound up with only five fewer than Oklahoma State.
Logan struggled with his shot, going 9-of-22 overall and 1-of-6 from 3-point range. But he found ways to get to the foul line, where he sank 12 of his 14 shots. He scored 10 of the Bearcats' final 12 points.
“He's deceptively quick,” said Victor Williams, who started out guarding Logan but didn't have much success. “He's a very heady player.”
Cincinnati, which went 25-10 last year and reached the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament, had won 21 straight season openers dating to 1979. Oklahoma State has won 94 of 95 home games against non-conference opponents since January 1987.
The start was delayed about 15 minutes because a computer malfunction caused the lights to stay off after the Cowboys were introduced.
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No. 18 Oklahoma St. 69, Cincinnati 62 By OWEN CANFIELD AP Sports Writer
