When the UC Bearcats need a 15-foot jump shot, they do not go looking for Donald Little. They do not say, “C'mon, big fella, time to tickle the twine.” There are no screens for Little, no plays run so he can catch the ball and drill 3-pointers from the distant wing. Little is 6 feet 10. It wouldn't be productive.

        So when the big man got the ball with three seconds left Friday night, 15 feet from the basket and as open as a Wyoming highway, nobody in Shoemaker Center did anything but hold his breath.

        UC was down a point to Marquette, in a simply fabulous basketball game. After a frenetic first half that saw both teams trade 20-4 runs, the second half settled into a classic test of wills.

        You couldn't slip a sheet of paper between these two teams, they're so close in talent and toughness.

        “They've got more ways to score,” offered Steve Logan. “We've got more ways to play defense.” If UC and Marquette played 10 times on a neutral floor, only a gambler or a fool would pick one team to win more than the other.

UC's Donald Little celebrates his game winning shot to beat Marquette Friday. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        UC needed everything it had Friday. In their opening, nine-minute Shoemaker haymaker, the Bearcats unloaded the entire arsenal. Four players scored. Little had five blocks. Marquette answered.

        UC went on a 10-0 burst in the last three minutes of the first half, thanks to as good a defensive lockdown as the Bearcats have shown since 1992. They extended their traps to practically halfcourt. The Golden Eagles were down 34-24 and looking for air.

        As good as it gets

        They answered, tying the game at 56 with 2:34 left, and it was on. Then the Eagles took a 62-58 lead with 30 seconds to play. The Bearcats had given everything they had by then. So had their fans: Shoemaker had been Crosstown Shootout-loud. The place was electric. ESPN even took Dick Vitale off the Duke beat long enough to do the game. As it turned out, the Bearcats needed every lung in the place.

        With 30 seconds left, even that didn't look to be good enough, and that would have been scary for the Bearcats, this close to March. If you lose at home while playing well, what happens to your confidence?

        Then, with 22.4 seconds to go, Logan banged in a 3 from the right wing. Logan had only 19 points, but five were in the last minute. Logan even wears flaming red sneakers that look like Dorothy's ruby slippers. Maybe there really is no place like home.

        UC fouled Marquette's Dwyane Wade, who missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Little rebounded and away he went. Immanuel McElroy drove the lane, kicked the ball out to Little and ...

        “I was the fifth option. I ain't afraid to say it,” Little said.

        He practices 15-footers the first 10 minutes of practice, he said. He figures he makes about 40 percent of them. Ever made one to win a game?

        “Nah,” said Little. “First one.”

        Bob Huggins said Little had been shooting more jumpers to prepare for this game. It had something to do with spreading Marquette's post defense. Hard-core basketball stuff. Bottom line, Donald Little had actually been shooting from beyond 36 inches in practice.

        But not that much.

        “Oh,” Huggins said. “Was it 15feet? If it was 15, it was a little too much.”

        Only this once, it wasn't.

        Contact Paul Daugherty at 768-8454; e-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com.

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