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University of Louisville
Cincinnati
Men's Basketball Falls To No. 7 Cincinnati, 77-50
January 19, 2002 | Men's Basketball
Jan 19, 2002
By JOE KAY
AP Sports Writer
CINCINNATI - Steve Logan scored 21 points and led an early run as No. 7 Cincinnati beat poor-shooting Louisville 77-50 Saturday, extending the nation's longest winning streak to 17 games.
Cincinnati (5-0 Conference USA) improved to 17-1 for the fifth time in school history. The 1999-2000 team also opened that way.
Coach Rick Pitino watched Louisville (11-5, 2-3) struggle through another tough game on offense. The Cardinals missed 24 of their first 28 shots and never seriously threatened.
Logan, the conference's player of the year, had nine points in a 17-0 burst that started midway through the first half.
Reece Gaines had 19 for Louisville, which shot only 27.4 percent from the field. The Cardinals finished with their lowest point total of the season, eclipsing an 82-62 loss to Kentucky.
Pitino's hiring at Louisville in the offseason added some intrigue to Conference USA, which Cincinnati has dominated since its inception in 1995.
Subplots were on fans' minds when the teams took the floor. Mick Cronin, who was coach Bob Huggins' top recruiter at Cincinnati but left to join Pitino, was loudly jeeered when he walked onto the floor. A sign in the student section read: "Benedict Cronin."
The arena again resounded with boos when Pitino walked onto the court a minute before pregame introductions, walked over to shake Huggins' hand and shared a laugh.
It was Pitino's second game at the Shoemaker Center. He led Kentucky to a 75-71 win over Huggins' Bearcats on Nov. 29, 1990, a game decided by Kentucky's edge in talent.
This one came down to Louisville's inability to make close-up shots. The Cardinals came into the game shooting 39.2 percent from the field, one of the conference's worst marks.
Louisville missed 13 shots - most of them from a few feet away - and had four turnovers during the 17-point run that put Cincinnati in control. The 7{-minute drought featured one botched alley-up, one shot slamming off the side of the backboard and another missing the rim entirely.
Louisville did as good a job as any opponent at getting the ball inside Cincinnati's man-to-man defense, which ranks among the nation's best. The Cardinals then hurried and missed.
Cincinnati also was stumbling along until Logan broke the game open by hitting a 3-pointer, a pair of free throws and a fastbreak layup in rapid-fire succession, sparking the 17-point run. Logan finished it with a pair of free throws that put Cincinnati ahead 28-11.
Erik Brown's steal and dunk off the press trimmed it to 37-27 early in the second half, but Cincinnati got a three-point play by Jason Maxiell and jumpers by Logan and Leonard Stokes to blunt Louisville's final surge.
Cincinnati's 17-game streak ranks among the school's best. The 1960-61 Bearcats won their last 22 games and the national title, the 1961-62 team won its last 18 games and the national title, the 1962-63 team won its first 19 games and lost in the national championship game.
