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UC's Steve Logan looks to take a shot past a flying South Florida's Marlyn Bryant (Leesburg High School, Leesburg Florida) in the first half.
(Jeff Swinger photo) |
Stars exit game early as UC gains semifinals
By Michael Perry, mperry@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Steve Logan hates sitting on the bench.
Hates it. Even for one minute.
But University of Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins didn't give any
of his starters a choice Thursday night. Some of the top-seeded
Bearcats were able to get plenty of rest in a 79-57 rout of
eighth-seeded South Florida in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA
Tournament at Firstar Center.
Logan, who played a season-low 23 minutes, and fellow starters
Jamaal Davis, Immanuel McElroy and Donald Little, went to the sideline
for good with 11:22 left. Leonard Stokes, the fifth starter, joined them
with 8:55 remaining and UC ahead by 27 points.
They all watched the rest of the game with their warmup tops on.
“It's always tough to sit over there, but it was a good call,”
Logan said. “It was a good chance for the young guys to get some
minutes.”
“It's obvious that if they get a little more rest, they should
be a little fresher,” Huggins said. “My concern is if the game starts
going the other way, then we kind of lose all the momentum that we've
built. But ... this is probably going to be good for (Logan). He plays a
lot of minutes. This has got to help him.”
The fifth-ranked Bearcats (28-3) face
Charlotte in tonight's 7:30 p.m. semifinal.
Marquette and Houston are playing in the other semifinal at 5
p.m. The winners meet at 11:40 a.m. Saturday for the title.
In the final 10 days of the regular season, UC played three of
its closest games: Marquette (one-point victory), Louisville
(three-point loss), Memphis (five-point overtime victory).
The UC-South Florida game was never close. The Bearcats jumped
out to a 13-2 lead. It was 47-23 by halftime. South Florida never made a
run of any kind.
“I thought we came out with great energy to start the game,” Huggins said.
Said Stokes: “We just wanted to send a message to everybody
watching, that we come out and play hard all the time, from the jump,
and I think we did that tonight.”
It was the ideal first game in a potential three-games-in-three-days situation.
“Come out and just attack them,” Logan said. “Give them no
chance to think they're in the ballgame.
We played defense well. We
rebounded well. That's what playing in a tournament's all about.”
Logan finished with a team-high 15 points. He also had three assists and no turnovers.
Davis, who had totaled 12 points over his previous three
games, finished with 13 on 5-of-6 shooting in just 19 minutes. Stokes
added 11 points and six rebounds.
It was Davis who really got UC going, scoring the game's first
basket off a rebound, hitting a 3 and scoring off another rebound in
the first four minutes — for seven of Cincinnati's first 11 points.
“That was my whole plan from shootaround,” Davis said. “I kept
telling myself to attack, attack, attack. I think it worked out for
me.”
Cincinnati has defeated South Florida 12 consecutive times.
The Bearcats are 33-0 — 5-0 in the league tournament — against C-USA
National Division teams since the conference went to a two-division
format in 1997-98.
Senior Altron Jackson, C-USA's all-time leading scorer,
finished with 21 points, but 12 came after McElroy went to the sideline
for good. McElroy, the league's Defensive Player of the Year, had been
guarding Jackson.
“Their intensity, their competitiveness. We just got out-toughed from the jump ball,” Jackson said.
NOTABLE NUMBERS:
Logan scored in double figures for the 52nd straight game,
which is now the third-longest streak in school history. He also tied
Keith Gregor's UC record by playing in his 131st career game. ... UC's
28 victories ties for the second-highest total in school history. The
record is 29.
Box Score
CONFERENCE USA TOURNAMENT
SOUTH FLORIDA (57)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
A Jackson 37 7-16 5-6 3-7 0 2 21
B Waldon 27 4-8 2-6 1-7 2 3 10
W Mcdonald 11 2-4 0-0 0-2 0 4 4
M Bryant 12 0-2 0-0 0-0 2 1 0
R Kohn 14 1-2 0-0 0-2 0 1 3
B Swift 26 2-9 1-2 0-0 2 1 6
B Brigman 17 4-11 0-0 3-6 0 4 8
G Morris 6 1-2 0-2 1-1 0 2 2
T Leather 10 0-2 0-0 1-1 1 1 0
J Baxter 16 0-3 0-0 0-2 1 0 0
M Bernard 9 0-1 3-4 1-1 0 3 3
G Brittian 15 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 1 0
_____________________________________________________
TOTALS 200 21-60 11-20 10-30 8 23 57
_____________________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.350, FT-.550. 3-Point Goals:
4-8, .500 (A Jackson 2-3, M Bryant 0-1, R
Kohn 1-2, B Swift 1-2). Team Rebounds: 5.
Blocked Shots: 1 (A Jackson). Turnovers: 15
(W Mcdonald 3, J Baxter 2, M Bernard 2, A
Jackson 2, B Brigman 2, R Kohn 2, B Waldon, M
Bryant). Steals: 6 (B Brigman 2, A Jackson, T
Leather, G Brittian, G Morris).
CINCINNATI (79)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
J Davis 19 5-6 2-2 3-4 0 2 13
I Mcelroy 25 2-4 4-6 0-0 2 0 8
D Little 21 2-4 2-4 1-3 0 3 6
L Stokes 19 3-8 5-8 2-6 1 2 11
S Logan 23 5-11 5-7 0-2 3 0 15
F Williams 24 3-7 0-0 1-2 4 1 8
J Meeker 2 1-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 2
J Lucas 5 1-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 2
T Barker 13 0-1 2-4 0-4 3 2 2
R Flowers 4 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
R Crawford 10 1-3 1-1 4-4 0 1 3
B Grove 13 0-1 0-0 0-5 0 2 0
J Maxiell 22 4-6 1-2 0-6 0 2 9
_____________________________________________________
TOTALS 200 27-54 22-34 11-39 13 15 79
_____________________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.500, FT-.647. 3-Point Goals:
3-10, .300 (J Davis 1-1, L Stokes 0-1, S
Logan 0-3, F Williams 2-4, T Barker 0-1).
Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 6 (D Little
3, R Crawford, J Maxiell, J Davis).
Turnovers: 12 (R Crawford 3, J Davis 2, F
Williams 2, D Little, L Stokes, J Lucas, T
Barker, J Maxiell). Steals: 5 (J Maxiell 2, J
Davis, D Little, F Williams).
-----------------------------------
SOUTH FLORIDA 23 34 - 57
CINCINNATI 47 32 - 79
-----------------------------------
Resources
Michael Perry
mperry@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
March 8, 2002
Leesburg Public Library
100 East Main Street
Leesburg, Florida 34748
Article provided by:
Gerald Lacey
Staff Writer
Carver Heights Quarterback Club
1986 Varsity Jackets Football Lettermen #82
Class of 1988 Leesburg High School
leesburgyellowjacketsfootball@yahoo.com
www.leesburgyellowjacketsfootball.com
Gerald
is a professional Internet marketer and
social media marketing expert. His
online business ventures and websites generate
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His consulting clients include best selling
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Gerald is the CEO/President of Lacey LLC and OmariWholesale, Inc. He
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