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When the press doesn't work, No. 14 Cincinnati can still get a win. It's just not very pretty.
James White and Field Williams each scored 14 points and Cincinnati extended its best start in four years by beating Miami of Ohio 83-63 on Saturday night.
Cincinnati (8-0) pulled out to a 20-point lead in the first half, but couldn't shake the RedHawks (4-5) until midway through the second.
The game was played at a downtown arena that's about a 15-minute drive from Cincinnati's campus. A majority of the crowd of 14,873 consisted of Cincinnati fans, who found little to cheer in an uneven and uninspired performance by the Bearcats.
``I don't think they played particularly well tonight,'' Miami coach Charlie Coles said. ``I don't think we played particularly well tonight.''
With their full-court trap producing few turnovers, the Bearcats had to rely on their old standby -- a solid halfcourt game.
The defense was
all right -- Miami shot only 34.5 percent from the field -- but the offense
repeatedly bogged down and never got into a rhythm. Coach Bob Huggins got so
frustrated with the lack of passing in the second half that he called a timeout
to berate his team.
``I was upset because we ran no offense,'' Huggins said. ``I didn't enjoy sitting
there and watching it, and I'm sure people (in the seats) didn't enjoy watching
it. The only people who enjoyed watching it were Charlie and his crew, because
we couldn't score.''
Tony Bobbitt added 11 points and Jason Maxiell had 10 for Cincinnati, which has won its last six games against Miami. Danny Horace and Chet Mason led the RedHawks with 10 points apiece.
Miami does a good job of taking care of the ball in its deliberate, Princeton-style offense. The RedHawks' main problem all season has been getting it to go into the basket -- twice this season, they've been held under 40 points.
They navigated through Cincinnati's full-court press without much problem, but couldn't find a decent shot. The RedHawks made only six of their first 26 field-goal attempts (23 percent), allowing Cincinnati to pull ahead 37-17.
Although Miami had only 16 turnovers against a defense forcing an average of 24 per game, the Bearcats think the press had something to do with the RedHawks' low shooting percentage.
``I think it wears you down,'' White said. ``We're not going to get a lot of turnovers every game.''
Huggins grew angry as the Bearcats' main weakness came into play again early in the second half -- a propensity to get soft and sloppy with a big lead.
``We don't score because we run good offense,'' Huggins said. ``We score because we've got good players, which one of these days won't be good enough.''
Miami kept the lead between 15 and 21 points until it hit another shooting slump midway through the second half. Bobbitt's fastbreak layup highlighted a nine-point burst that made it 68-40.
The Bearcats have gotten a little haughty while pulling off their best start since 1999-00, when they also won their first eight games. After a 29-point drubbing of No. 23 Dayton on Tuesday night, Cincinnati players belittled the Flyers' coach, saying he looked scared and pale before the game.
In the first half against Miami, White was fouled by Nate VanderSluis while going in for a dunk. White turned with mouth wide open and clapped in VanderSluis' face for several seconds, but didn't draw a technical foul.
The officials repeatedly warned players to tone down the trash talking.