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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) |
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).
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SOUTH FLORIDA 23 34 - 57
CINCINNATI 47 32 - 79
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