By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - It's a long season and you can't let one loss, no matter how humiliating, affect your next game.

That was the message University of Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins imparted to his team after its humiliating 27-point loss to Louisville on Wednesday.

But the Bearcats ignored him.

Cincinnati guard Tony Bobbitt (15) guards Southern Mississippi guard Dante Stiggers (5) as he dribbles down court in the second half. (AP photo)

The team that blew past Southern Miss 83-47 on Saturday afternoon before 5,327 fans at Reed Green Coliseum definitely was affected by the Louisville loss.

But the effect was positive. Three days after absorbing a defeat that equaled the most lopsided during the 15-year Huggins coaching era, the sixth-ranked Bearcats (14-1, 5-1 Conference USA) turned the tables and produced a 36-point win, matching its most lopsided road win ever in C-USA.

"Five million watched that Louisville game," said UC guard Tony Bobbitt, who led UC with 19 points. "If you take 5 million people and add four people to each house, that's over 10 million people watching us get our tails kicked.

"We've still got that in our mouth. Today we wanted to come out and get a little stress off our shoulders, but it's still on our shoulders, because that was embarrassing."

UC placed four players in double figures, with Jason Maxiell getting 17 points to go with six rebounds.

The Bearcats jumped on Southern Miss (9-7, 2-3) from the opening tipoff, running out to a 7-0 lead. UC used its full-court pressure and a suffocating half-court defense to force 12 turnovers in the first half and limit Southern Miss to 23.3 percent shooting for the game.

Southern Miss center Charles Gaines, who leads the conference in rebounding, had 10 rebounds, but the Golden Eagles' leading scorer was held to just four points - 11 below his average - and failed to make a field goal.

The Bearcats led 32-8 with 5:05 left in the first half. At that point, the Golden Eagles had made only two of 21 shots. Southern Miss endured two stretches totaling 13:04 without a field goal in the first half.

"They like to be patient," Huggins said of the Golden Eagles. "Because of our pressure, they didn't have the time they normally have. Instead of having 30 seconds to run their offense, they had 20 seconds or less than that. That was the key to what we did in the halfcourt."

Southern Miss, which finished with more turnovers (16) than field goals (14), finally found the range near the end of the second half. The Golden Eagles outscored UC 14-6 during the final 14:53, then closed the UC lead to 13 with 18:26 left in the game.

"I felt really uneasy when they started to make a run," Huggins said. "They totally became the aggressor."

But it didn't last long.

The Bearcats outscored Southern Miss 13-2 to spread the lead to 52-28 with 14:29 to go. The game was essentially over at that point.

"I thought we started the game with the jitters," Southern Miss coach James Green said.

"It was one of those games with a lot of hype and a heck of an opportunity, and we missed the opportunity.

"They were angry at Louisville. But they didn't get a chance to play Louisville so they took it out on us."

The win didn't totally erase the bad taste from the Louisville game. That won't be possible until Feb. 21, when the Cardinals travel to Fifth Third Arena.

But this game, coming over a team that had beaten both Marquette and Memphis, should go a long way toward beginning the healing process.

"We're back to playing like we're capable of playing," forward James White said. "We were able to put pressure on them early and play the game we'd been playing the first 13 games of the year."

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E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com

Cincinnati	M	FG	Att	FT	Att	R	A	F	TO	TP
White	25	3	6	6	6	4	1	0	3	13
Maxiell	28	4	8	9	12	6	1	3	1	17
Johnson	28	2	5	2	4	8	0	3	0	6
F.Williams	27	5	7	0	0	1	3	1	1	11
N.Williams	17	2	5	2	2	6	2	4	0	8
Meeker	3	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Lucas	14	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	0
Hicks	15	2	5	1	2	6	0	4	0	5
Bobbitt	21	7	13	4	4	1	1	4	2	19
Kirkland	20	2	5	0	0	2	3	0	3	4
Whaley	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Totals	200	27	55	24	30	40	13	20	10	83

Team rebounds - 4.

S. Miss	M	FG	Att	FT	Att	R	A	F	TO	TP
G.Johnson	29	2	9	2	2	3	0	3	0	7
Carter	20	0	5	1	2	2	0	3	1	1
Gaines	27	0	7	4	8	10	0	2	2	4
Haywood	25	2	3	0	0	2	0	3	1	6
Stiggers	23	1	4	0	0	2	5	2	2	2
Forte	22	3	8	0	1	5	1	1	1	7
Drake	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Pittman	8	0	1	1	2	2	0	1	1	1
Richardson	4	0	2	1	2	0	0	1	0	1
Singleton	15	1	6	3	5	3	0	3	2	5
Quinn	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
J.Johnson	21	5	13	2	2	8	0	1	6	13
Lewis	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Totals	200	14	60	14	24	43	6	20	16	47

Team rebounds - 4.

Cincinnati	38	45	-83
Southern Miss	22	25	-47

3-pointers - UC 5-9 (White 1-1, F.Williams 1-2, N.Williams 2-2, Meeker 0-1, Bobbitt 1-3), SM 5-15 (G.Johnson 1-4, Carter 0-1, Haywood 2-3, Forte 1-2, Richardson 0-1, Singleton 0-1, J.Johnson 1-3). Technicals - SM (team). Officials - Eades, Menees, Crawford. Attendance - 5,327.