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PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Duke vs. Winthrop might not have been the
biggest mismatch of the NCAA Tournament, after all. How about Steve Logan vs. Boston University?
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No surprises here -- this one was a total M&M-er -- a flat-out mis-match. Bob Huggins' Cincinnati club, with their suffocating defense, put the big-time hurt on Boston University's Terriers. It was blowout-city right from the gate, as the Bearcats athleticism and talent were simply too much for BU to handle. Cincy had an especially productive night shooting the 3, and Steve Logan looked like the catalyst he always is.
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Logan put on a dazzling display of shooting and playmaking while
outscoring Boston U. by himself until well into the second half,
leading top-seeded Cincinnati to an oh-so-easy 90-52 victory Friday
night in a first-round West Regional game.
It was a typical No. 1 vs. No. 16 romp, with the only question
being whether Logan would score more points than the Terriers
(22-10). He didn't, settling for 27 before leaving with 7:27
remaining after scoring only four in the second half.
It was Bearcats coach Bob Huggins' 500th career victory -- he is
500-171 at Walsh, Akron and Cincinnati -- and few were as easy as
this one.
"I didn't know if I would last this long," said Huggins, the
95th Division I coach to reach 500 victories. "You didn't see how
bad some of those teams at Walsh were."
Logan, the All-American guard, had been in a shooting slump, but
all that ended during a remarkable burst late in the first half
that turned an already one-sided Cincinnati advantage into an
almost embarrassingly big lead.
With the Bearcats (31-3) up 23-8, he began what might be called
Logan's run with a long 3-pointer, the first of seven consecutive
shots he would hit. Four were 3-pointers, each of them longer than
the last.
"I've been shooting it well in practice, so when I got in the
game, I just had to focus," Logan said.
For a while, it seemed like he wouldn't miss -- and a frustrated
BU coach Dennis Wolff wondered what could possibly be done to throw
Logan off.
"He was making some NBA 3-pointers and, on a number of them, he
was closely guarded," Wolff said. "It wasn't like he was standing
there wide open."
Logan, too quick and too strong to be guarded by a BU backcourt
that seemed to be playing in slow motion, went on to score 11
consecutive points during a 24-3 Bearcats run. That streak ended
when Logan threw a perfectly timed over-the-rim pass to Immanuel
McElroy for a dunk.
Still, Logan wasn't done, hitting three more long jumpers to
make it 43-16 at the half. The more compelling halftime score,
though, was Logan 23, BU 16, and the Terriers didn't overtake Logan
until there were 13 1/2 minutes remaining.
"He made a lot of long 3s, and you couldn't do anything about
that," said Chaz Carr, who guarded Logan.
Cincinnati's excellent shooting -- it shot 53.1 percent despite
playing substitutes most of the final 10 minutes -- didn't surprise
Huggins.
"We've been shooting well in practice, and I expected us to
shoot well during the game. We know what time it is -- that it's one
and out," he said.
Logan, the No. 2 career scorer at Cincinnati to Oscar Robertson,
seemed ready to threaten his career high of 41 set Feb. 15 against
Southern Mississippi. But he settled into a playmaker's role in the
second half as the Bearcats did little more than work on their
outside shooting for Sunday's second-round game against UCLA.
It was just the start Logan wanted in NCAA play after shooting
only 9-for-38 from 3-point range in his previous seven games. He
went 10-of-15 overall and 4-of-9 on 3-pointers in 27 minutes.
But it certainly wasn't what BU wanted after winning nine in a
row, only to be dealt its most lopsided loss since a 73-42 defeat
to Drexel in 1997.
The Terriers missed their first 13 shots while falling behind
14-2 and didn't make a field goal until Rashad Bell's layup with
11:21 left in the half. Bell finished with 16 points.
"It was very discouraging," Boston U.'s Billy Collins said.
"We wanted to come out and play well. But we were rushing our
shots and not setting up plays, and that put us in a hole."
Field Williams added 16 points, and McElroy had 11 for
Cincinnati, playing in its 11th consecutive NCAA Tournament.
If Cincinnati didn't deserve a No. 1 seeding, as some argued
last weekend, Wolff doesn't want to see a team that does.
"They're difficult to defend, especially Logan," Wolff said,
"and that's what's going to keep them alive in this tournament." | 
