By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati's Jason Maxiell shoots over Coppin State's Darron Bradley. (Mike Simons photo)

Field Williams and Tony Bobbitt had just produced some of the best basketball of their careers, but neither was in the mood to bask in their accomplishments Saturday at Fifth Third Arena.

There was just one thing on their minds as they met reporters after the University of Cincinnati's 76-56 win over Coppin State, and it had nothing to do with scoring.

They weren't interested, either, in the 29 turnovers the Bearcats forced or the 17 steals they recorded. All they knew is that they were outrebounded 35-28.

"We weren't rebounding," said Williams, who set career highs with 24 points and eight 3-pointers. "If you come to practice tomorrow, you'll see, because we'll be running."

The 19th-ranked Bearcats (3-0) have won their first three games by an average margin of 84-61, but they're outrebounding opponents by just over one.

"When we play good teams such as Marquette and Louisville, we've got to rebound," said Bobbitt, who scored 21 points and set a UC record with eight steals.

Coppin State (2-4) outscored UC 15-10 in second-chance points. The Eagles fell behind 7-0 and 22-6 but managed to stay in the game, trailing by just 12 with 6:53 to go before a late UC flurry let the Bearcats to pull away.

UC got plenty of mileage out of its full-court and half-court trapping defense, scoring 30 points in off turnovers. Bobbitt had four dunks in transition.

"To me, that was the Cincinnati team of old," said Coppin State coach Fang Mitchell, "with that pressure for 40 minutes."

But some of that pressure was negated by the lack of effort on the boards. Forward Armein Kirkland got just one rebound in 15 minutes. Robert Whaley, UC's 6-foot-10 center, managed only one rebound in 18 minutes. In contrast, walk-on guard John Meeker had two rebounds in two minutes.

Huggins said there might be lineup changes on the way for Tuesday's game at Valparaiso. He hinted at lineup changes after last week's Oakland game, too, but stayed with the same starting five of Whaley, Kirkland, Jason Maxiell and Field and Nick Williams.

"Nobody really jumped up and took a spot," Huggins said. "They were all equally inept."

"I've never seen more balls bounce off of guys' hands," Huggins continued. "It's unbelievable. We don't rebound the ball."

Coppin St.	M	FG	Att	FT	Att	R	A	F	TO	TP
Bradley	36	3	3	1	2	5	0	5	6	7
King	20	3	9	0	0	5	0	0	4	7
Colter	17	1	3	1	2	2	1	1	2	3
Boykin	40	7	15	2	2	5	2	0	3	21
Scott	38	1	4	0	0	5	4	1	6	3
Otis	29	2	7	0	0	7	2	1	4	5
Yates	20	2	4	6	6	3	1	4	4	10
Totals	200	19	45	10	12	35	10	12	29	56

Team rebounds - 3.

Cincinnati	M	FG	Att	FT	Att	R	A	F	TO	TP
Kirkland	15	1	3	0	0	1	2	2	1	2
Maxiell	30	4	7	0	0	9	2	1	1	8
Whaley	18	1	8	4	4	1	0	1	1	6
F.Williams	31	8	12	0	0	4	1	1	0	24
N.Williams	20	0	7	2	2	0	3	1	1	2
Moore	16	2	3	0	1	0	4	0	1	4
Meeker	2	0	2	0	0	2	1	0	1	0
Lucas	14	1	1	1	2	2	4	0	2	3
Hicks	19	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	0
Bobbitt	22	8	15	2	2	0	1	3	2	21
Johnson	20	3	4	0	1	5	0	4	1	6
Totals	200	28	63	9	12	28	18	13	5	76

Team rebounds - 3.

Coppin St.	24	32	-56
Cincinnati	40	36	-76

3-pointers - CS 8-16 (King 1-3, Boykin 5-9, Scott 1-2, Otis 1-2), UC 11-27 (Kirkland 0-2, Maxiell 0-1, F.Williams 8-10, N.Williams 0-4, Moore 0-1, Meeker 0-1, Bobbitt 3-8). Technicals - None. Officials - Ware, Pyatt, Mathis. Attendance - 10,790.