Dec. 16, 1999
ST. LOUIS - Top-ranked Cincinnati ran away from Saint Louis 79-64 tonight before 15,103 at Kiel Center in the Conference USA opener for both clubs. The Bearcats (8-0, 1-0) won their eighth in a row, while the Billikens (5-3, 0-1) had a two-game winning streak snapped.
Bearcat seniors Kenyon Martin and Pete Mickael each posted double-doubles. Martin popped in 19 points and led all rebounders with 17, while Mickael chipped in with 13 points and 10 boards. Freshman sensation DerMarr Johnson led all scorers with 23.
Mickeal also did a stellar defensive job on Billiken scoring leader Justin Love, who came into the game as C-USA's leading scorer at 20 ppg. Mickael limited Love to a season-low nine points on 3-for-10 shooting from the field. Love spent all but seven minutes of the second half on the bench.
"The encouraging thing is that I think we can play better," said Bearcats coach Bob Huggins. "Pete does that to a lot of people. He is one of the better one-on-one defensive players in the country."
Cincinnati scored the first six points of the game, but Saint Louis answered with a 7-0 run of its own to claim the lead. The Bills' last lead was 9-8 with 15:17 to play in the first half. The Bills stayed close on the heels of the 'Cats and trailed 26-24 with 4:48 remaining after a pair of Marque Perry free throws. But Johnson drained the first of his three treys, and the Bearcats embarked on a 13-to-2 run to close the half.
"That's a very good team, and they know it," Billikens first-year head coach Lorenzo Romar said. "We had a chance in the first half with some point blank shots to keep it a game, and we didn't convert. You can't do that against a team of that magnitude."
The Billikens were unable to put on any pressure at the beginning of the second half, and Cincinnati eased out to a 22-point lead on a Steve Logan jumper with 10:33 remaining. The Bills' Maurice Jeffers and Troy Robertson hit back-to-back threes to pull the margin back within reason, but Saint Louis never seriously threatened again.
"We weren't intimidated, but we seemed a little timid," Love said. "Maurice and Troy were playing better than I was, so they got the minutes in the second half."
SLU junior forward Justin Tatum tied his career scoring high with 18 points and led the Bills, who were seriously out-rebounded 38-21, with four boards. Jeffers had career highs of 12 points and seven assists. Robertson added 10 points off the bench.
The Billikens close their four-game December homestand by hosting UMKC on Sun., Dec. 19, at 4:30 p.m.
