Saturday, March 25, 2000
Stuff clinch playoff spot
BY PETE HOLTERMANN
Enquirer contributor
Despite dropping a 100-95 decision to St. Louis on Friday at the Firstar Center, the Cincinnati Stuff clinched a spot in the IBL playoffs by virtue of Richmond's 123-106 win over Baltimore.
That good news did little to brighten the Cincinnati locker room after the game because the Stuff know St. Louis is the team they are chasing for the league's best record.
“This game was real important,” Stuff forward Eric Taylor said. “Our main thing coming into this was getting the home-court advantage over St. Louis.”
The Stuff fell to 33-14 with the loss while St. Louis climbed to 35-13.
Cincinnati led the Swarm 87-82 with nine minutes re maining in the game. But the Stuff scored just two points over the next six minutes as St. Louis put up 12 to take a 94-89 lead with three minutes left.
The Stuff got within one, 94-93, with two-and-a-half minutes left on an inside basket by Taylor. But a jumper from Lenny Brown was all the Stuff would get the rest of the way as St. Louis closed out the game from the foul line.
St. Louis' Doug Smith scored a career-high 31 points on 11-of-17 shooting, including 8-for-11 from 3-point range.
Taylor scored 14 points and had a career-high 16 rebounds.
Fred Williams and Allen Edwards came off the bench to help the defensive effort and add 14 and 11 points.
ST LOUIS - Houston 3-8 2-2 8, Grimm 2-6 5-6 11, D. Smith 11-17 1-2 31, Sims 5-9 0-1 10, Johnson 6-14 0-0 17, Ballard 3-8 4-6 11, Claggett 1-4 0-0 3, A. Smith 3-6 3-9 9, Tarver 0-0 0-0 0, Shaw 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 34-72 15-26 100
CINCINNATI - Fowlkes 6-13 6-9 19, Sanders 2-4 1-2 6, Samake 3-5 2-2 8, Turner 2-10 4-4 8, Blakney 1-6 0-0 2, Brown 6-9 1-3 13, Williams 4-7 6-7 14, Edwards 5-5 0-1 11, Taylor 4-11 6-8 14. Totals: 33-70 26-36 95
St. Louis ....... 32 23 20 25-100
Cincinnati ....... 26 26 28 15-95
Three-point field goals: St. Louis 17-32 (Grimm 2-5, D. Smith 8-11, Sims 0-2, Johnson 5-9, Ballard 1-2, Claggett 1-3); Cincinnati 3-13 (Fowlkes 1-4, Sanders 1-2, Turner 0-1, Blakney 0-2, Brown 0-2, Williams 0-1, Edwards 1-1). Rebounds: St. Louis 37 (D. Smith 13); Cincinnati49 (Taylor 14). Assists: St. Louis 21 (Sims 8); Cincinnati 11 (Blakney, Brown 11). Technical Fouls - St. Louis Bench. A- 2,742
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