TicketsBearcats Pull Away In Second Half To Beat NSU, 81-65
UC improves to 7-0 as Huggins coaches 500th game
Contact: Brian Teter
12/18/2004
Jason Maxiell scored a season-high 21 points in Saturday's win over Northwestern State. |
CINCINNATI, Ohio ? University of Cincinnati head coach Bob Huggins coached his 500th game for the 17th-ranked Bearcats on Saturday night in the second game of the Las Vegas Holiday Classic, but for the first 30 minutes against Northwestern State (La.) it looked as if the final outcome might not be a happy one.
The visiting Demons scrapped and clawed all night and trailed by only four with 10 minutes remaining before UC put together a 21-4 run over the next six minutes to put a seal on the 81-65. Huggins received a commemorative plaque from UC athletic director Bob Goin before the game and a standing ovation from the 10,035 fans at Fifth Third Arena, however, it was the play of his team that he remembered the most after the game.
?We did not play very well in the first half, and we are going to get out-rebounded a lot if we don?t start blocking people out,? Huggins explained. ?I thought Jamaal Lucas was really good and I think he turned the game around. He is far and away our best defender. He passes the ball, tries to get other people involved. He plays hard.?
Lucas, a senior reserve guard, was the second half sparkplug for the Bearcats and was the stopper defensively during UC?s game-deciding run in the final 10 minutes. Despite not taking a single shot from the field, Lucas played a career-best 20 minutes and handed out a career-high four assists for the Bearcats, who are now 7-0 for the fifth time in the last 10 years.
Senior forward Jason Maxiell led all scorers and paced five Bearcats in double figures with 21 points, connecting on 7 of 11 from the field and 7 of 10 from the free throw line. Maxiell also added seven rebounds and five blocked shots as the senior from Carrollton, Texas moved into 24th place on the UC all-time scoring list with 1,169 points.
Junior forward Armein Kirkland added 15 points on 6 of 10 shooting from the field, including 3 of 5 from three-point range, while Jihad Muhammad (13), Nick Williams (12) and Eric Hicks (11) also joined the double figure scoring club. Hicks added a game-high 11 rebounds to register his third double-double of the season and sixth of his career.
?I know my role and that is to practice hard and play defense,? said Lucas. ?I just want to give a spark off the bench and guard the best offensive player on the other team.?
UC raced to a 13-4 lead in the first 4:36 of the game, but Northwestern State kept coming back and eventually tied the game 36-36 at halftime on a pair of treys by Tramaine Hancock in the final 1:13 of the first half. Hancock led NSU with 12 points.
The Demons, who lost their third straight game to fall to 5-5 on the season, took their first and only lead of the night at 40-39 with 17:01 left in the game on a short jumper by Clifton Lee.
The Bearcats took the lead for good on a couple of free throws by Muhammad, and put the game away with the big run, keyed by nine straight points from Maxiell, who matched his season high with 21.
?We got after it and we played hard. We were undersized, but we competed and competed well against a Top 20 program in the country,? said NSU head coach Mike McConathy.
UC, which beat Northern Iowa in double overtime in November, is now 2-0 in the Las Vegas Holiday Classic, which concludes with two games in Las Vegas Dec. 30-31.
The Bearcats continue their homestand on Monday night when they host Jackson State at Fifth Third Arena. Game time is 8:00 p.m. and tickets are available by ordering online at www.ucbearcats.com or by calling 513-556-2287. UC is in the middle of a three-game stretch in five days. Cincinnati hosts LaSalle on Wednesday, Dec. 22 at 7:00 p.m.
GAME NOTES
The Bearcats set season-highs with 31 free throws and 43 attempts against Northwestern State.
UC tied a season-high with 10 blocked shots.
UC had five players in double digits for the third time in seven games this season.
Nick Williams? 12 points was a season-high.
Freshman walk-on Ryan Patzwald from Cincinnati?s Anderson High scored the first two points of his college career with a pair of free throws late in the game.