TicketsOn December 17th, 1994, the Cincinnati Bearcats were cold, lightheaded, and thousands of miles away from home. They were in Laramie, Wyoming, for a first-in-program-history face-off against the Cowboys. The trip was in large part due to UC head coach Bob Huggins agreeing to the game as a favor to Wyoming coach Joby Wright, one of Huggins’ friends.
The wintry, bitter cold in a city of just 27,000 residents was the perfect setting for Cincinnati to bond as a team, according to Huggins. “This will help us because they’ll spend a lot of time with each other,” he told the Enquirer. “At school, we’ve got different guys running in different directions. This really gets them together.” The motel the team was staying in, which reportedly had two chairs in the lobby and was located on a road five miles outside of town, seemed like the perfect place for the squad to come together.
The players didn’t seem to have that jolly spirit, though. Danny Fortson, who was just a freshman at the time, said that there were “no malls around here” and that the players “just go to basketball practice and then back to our hotel room and think about Cincinnati.”
“Other than winning the game, getting home is the most important thing to us,” added Fortson.
Damon Flint said that he had “never been to a place like this,” and Darnell Burton claimed that there “Ain’t much to do.”
Aside from fighting boredom, the Bearcats had another enemy: elevation. Wyoming’s Arena-Auditorium, dubbed as the “highest court in the land” by the Cowboy faithful, was 7,220 feet above sea level. That’s about ten times higher than the elevation at The Shoe. And the players felt it all week as they went through grueling practices. When asked about the conditions leading up to the game, Art Long said, “Every time I run up and down the floor, I feel like I’m going to faint.” LaZelle Durden, the sharpshooting guard from Toledo, noticed the struggle everyone was going through. “Guys were really feeling it in practice,” he said. "Guys were tired during layups. It's hard to describe."
Huggins believed that Durden was the key to winning a tough game in Laramie against a Wyoming team that was better than their record showed. While the Cowboys were only 2-3, including wins over Division II squads, they were led by eventual NBA All-Star Theo Ratliff, who was in his senior season. Before the game, Huggins reportedly told Durden that he might have to “hit 60 for us to win the other way the rest of our guys practiced.”
The pain in the practices showed up right from tip-off as the game started around 10:00 p.m. Cincinnati time. UC trailed from the start, as Wyoming jumped out to an 8-0 lead five minutes into the contest. They were able to cut the lead to three thanks to some help from Burton, but it wouldn’t be enough to stop the avalanche as Cincinnati trailed 37-27 at the half. Cowboys fans who had filled the “Double A” that night were relentless, chanting “overrated” to an exhausted Bearcats squad that fell behind by as much as 15 in the first half. Huggins needed someone on the squad who could find something in themselves to bear the thin air and rescue the ‘Cats from a monumental upset.
Durden played like he could be that guy from the start, continuing his hot streak from the first half with a three 15 seconds second. That started a 12-4 UC run that cut the Wyoming lead to two. Smooth sailing from there, right?
Nope. Wyoming went right back to seemingly draining anything they put up, with their lead swelling back to 12 with less than five minutes remaining. And with 88 seconds on the clock, Cincinnati trailed by nine. It seemed like the atmosphere would be just too much to overcome.
Enter LaZelle Durden. Alongside Keith LeGree, ‘Zelle led the Bearcats on an 11-1 run to cut the lead to one with just 17 seconds left. At this point, Durden had put up an incredible 42 points to give the team one last chance to escape Laramie with a win. Aaron Smith made one of two free throws for Wyoming, making it 80-78 with 15 seconds left. UC would have the final shot.
LeGree brought the ball up the court, then quickly dished it to Durden. He dribbled on the right side, then drew a double team as he attempted to drive the lane. He put up a one-handed three, and the refs called a shooting foul with no time left on the clock. He would have three shots to win the game for Cincinnati and cap off one of the greatest individual performances in program history.
He made the first one, then infamously shushed the crowd after making the second. With the entire Cincinnati bench ready to explode, Durden drilled his third and final free throw. He instantly sprang up into that thin air and was mobbed by his teammates as he had capped off his masterpiece. He finished the game with 45 points on 50% shooting and four rebounds and his team had just won a game in which it led for zero seconds.
"Give LaZelle Durden this one," wrote the Enquirer's John Fay the next morning. "He won it by himself."
After the game, Durden said about his performance that he “acted like it was practice.” After all, he seemed to be the one in rare air all week.