By Joe Kay
The Associated Press

CINCINNATI - As Cincinnati's only returning senior starter, Leonard Stokes knew he had to become a leader this season.

He talked to his inexperienced teammates about expectations. He told them how coach Bob Huggins wanted things done. He encouraged and cajoled.

It wasn't enough.

After a talk with Huggins, the low-key guard realized he had to do even more for the Bearcats to have a shot at an eighth straight Conference USA title. He had to start taking the tough shots with the game on the line, as Kenyon Martin and Steve Logan did before him.

"We've had a whole bunch of guys that have come here and have stepped up as seniors," Huggins said. "That's their responsibility."

Stokes has started meeting his responsibility. He scored a season-high 30 points Saturday in a 77-54 win over Tulane that essentially came down to his determination.

"March Madness is only six weeks away," Stokes said. "When the season's over, I don't want it to be 'could have, would have, should have."'

Stokes' best game of his career came during the NCAA tournament last season, a 39-point effort in a second-round loss to UCLA. In his last three games, he has put together one of the best stretches of his career.

Stokes has scored 20, 25 and 30 points in the last three, the main reason the Bearcats (11-3, 4-0) have won six in a row. Whenever the Bearcats needed a pivotal basket late in a game, he made it.

Against Tulane (7-9, 0-3), he went 12-of-17 from the field and scored from every spot on the court.

"That's three games in a row that Stokes came up big," coach Shawn Finney said. "He scored inside, outside and around the basket. We've got to find a better way to contain a guy from scoring like that. He's really grown into one of the better players in this league."

Until now, the Bearcats have been missing a productive center and a late-game leader. They're still not quite sure what to do at center - Derek Hollman and Rod Flowers combined for eight points and seven rebounds in 33 minutes against Tulane.

Stokes is taking care of the other shortcoming by asserting himself on the court the way Logan did last season. Stokes is more reserved than Logan and has a much different style at guard, but he's starting to get the same type of results.

"He's Lenny and he needs to play the way Lenny plays," Huggins said. "I think he's been doing that."

Until recently, Stokes had done it for only a few minutes at a time.

"I just wasn't assertive," he said. "I'd go through stretches where I was not getting rebounds or shooting the ball."

With both teams bogged down on Saturday, Stokes didn't hesitate to make the difference. He scored nine of Cincinnati's first 14 points as the Bearcats went ahead to stay, and scored nine consecutive points early in the second half as they took control.

He hit 3-pointers and layups, scored off rebounds and fastbreak passes. With the offense out of sync, Stokes decided to he was going to have to do a little bit of everything.

"It's my team," he said. "It's on my shoulders. I won't let us lose."

He's even starting to sound like Logan.