TicketsUC Men Turn Back 49ers in Offensive Show
Stokes scores 20 to lead the Bearcats.
Contact: Tom Hathaway
1/25/2003
Taron Barker |
CINCINNATI, Ohio -- Leonard Stokes scored 20 points and Cincinnati held off Charlotte's late offensive push to earn an 83-79 win over the 49ers on Saturday. The win boosted UC to 13-3 overall and to a half-game lead over Louisville in the Conference USA race with a 6-0 mark.
Charlotte shredded Cincinnati's stoic defense, which was ranked fifth nationally at the beginning of the game, for 79 points, a season-high by a UC foe. The 49ers, ranked 16th nationally in 3-point field goals, shot just .406 from the floor and were 1-of-10 from beyond the arc in falling to a 44-31 deficit through the first half of play.
Charlotte warmed up in the second half to shoot .586 and finish the game with a .492 percentage, the highest by a UC opponent this season. Demon Brown, who leads the nation in treys-per-game but was 0-for-4 from 3-point range in the first half, made 6-of-9 3-point land and the 49ers were 8-of-12 in the second stanza.
Cincinnati matched those offensive accomplishments by shooting .500 from the field, the third time in the last five games that UC reached or topped the 50 percent mark. The 83 points tied a season scoring high reached in the 83-72 win at TCU three weeks ago.
Stokes was 6-of-11 from the field and made 2-of-3 3-pointers in recording his 21st straight double-figure game. It was also the fourth 20-point performance in the last five outings for the reigning C-USA Player of the Week.
Field Williams contributed 15 points on 3-of-5 shooting, all from 3-point range. Jason Maxiell added 12 points.
It was Taron Barker who tallied the game's biggest points, however. The basket occurred just after Charlotte took the lead--the only lead of the game for the 49ers--on a pair of free throws by Vincent Greer with 2:28 to play. The Bearcats brought the ball down court. With the shot clock reading single digits, Stokes attempted to drive the lane. Finding himself pinned in coverage, Stokes flipped back to Barker who managed to get the shot off before the shot clock reached zero. The ball found nothing but net, returning Cincinnati to the lead, 78-76, with 1:50 remaining.
With 49 seconds left, Williams was fouled rebounding Brown's errant 3-point attempt. The junior sank both free throws to extend the margin to four points.
Barker came through with more heroics 10 seconds later when he stole the ball from Charlotte's Brown. Stokes made 1-of-2 free throw attempts with 20 seconds remaining. Barker came up with a defensive rebound on Charlotte's next possession and fired a pass to Stokes who streaked for a layup. The 49ers hit an uncontested trey at the buzzer.
"We've slipped defensively the last couple of weeks," was head coach Bob Huggins' seeming understatement. "We're young and inexperienced. We've won a few games and now we are not working as hard. It's easy to come in and work after you lose. It's tougher after a couple of wins. We have to start working harder in practice."
Huggins was displeased with his team's efforts to guard Brown, who finished with 22 points.
"We gave him a lot of easy shots, and once he got his confidence going, he really got hot," the coach observed.
"We weren't helping each other on defense," stated Barker. "But there wasn't much we could do. He was taking tough shots and he was making them."
"I heard the crowd counting down and then Lenny kicked it out to me," Barker explained of his clutch trey. "It felt good when I released it and it went in."
The Bearcats again started out slow. UC failed to score a field goal between 13:35 to 6:26 in the first half but made 5-of-6 foul shots during that period to hang on to a 19-17 lead.
Rod Flowers, making his second consecutive start at center, broke the drought with a layup. Stokes converted a four-point play on UC's next possession, sinking a 3-pointer and a free throw. Tony Bobbitt capped the spurt with a dunk which gave UC a 10-point margin.
Cincinnati led by as many as 15 points early in the second half, but Charlotte, finding the range from 3-point range, slowly whittled away at the lead, closing the gap to 73-71 with 5:03 remaining.
"I was really pleased with the way we played in the second half," stated Charlotte mentor Bobby Lutz. "Unfortunately, the game is 40 minutes long and for the first 20 we weren't very good. That was the difference."
Cincinnati plays at DePaul on Wednesday
NOTES:
? Bob Huggins left immediately following the game for Canton, Ohio where his mother remains in the hospital following surgery performed on Wednesday. The team is off on Sunday.
? Leonard Stokes climbed three more spots, to No. 25, on Cincinnati's career scoring list and now has 1,135 points. He needs 11 points to reach No. 24. Stokes' six assists were a personal best.
? Jason Maxiell didn't start after missing the past two days to attend the funeral of his grandmother. The sophomore played 27 minutes. Eric Hicks got the starting nod and finished with six points, three rebounds and a pair of blocks.
? Charlotte's .492 field goal percentage was the highest by an opponent against the Bearcats since Louisville shot .500 on Feb. 27, 2002.