Tennis Notebook

UH Baseball

Late comeback bid ends in 77-65 defeat

By Josh Gajewski
Daily Cougar Staff

If there is such a thing as a good loss, this was it.

The lights, the glamour, the glitz -- for Cincinnati, it's an everyday occurrence. But for the UH men's basketball team on a Thursday night, this was something big. This was primetime, and it was a little overwhelming, at least at first.

Houston came so close, but finally succumbed to the Bearcats (24-1, 12-0 C-USA) 77-65 on Thursday.

Pin Lim/The Daily Cougar

"There was a sense of us being a little uptight in the beginning," UH point guard Gee Gervin said, "and I missed a few shots that I know I can make."

The Cougars (8-16, 2-9 C-USA) came out of the tunnel at Hofheinz Pavilion absolutely star-struck while the Bearcats seized every early opportunity.

Cincinnati freshman sensation DeMarr Johnson was the first Bearcat to jump at the Cougars' throat, scoring the first eight points of the game within an opening span of 1:16.

By the 11:48 mark in the first half, the Bearcat lead stretched to 18 at 24-6, thanks to poor shooting by the Cougars who shot just under a measly 29 percent in the first half.

Once UH got its feet planted in the second half, the tide turned.

Gee Gervin led the comeback charge, scoring 18 of his 28 points after intermission. A 14-2 run would bring the boisterous Cougar faithful to its feet as the score drew closer. When Kenny Younger slammed home a rim-shaking dunk with 7:19 to play to cut the lead to seven.

"Basically, the difference in the first half was that we didn't make our shots and they made theirs," UH head coach Clyde Drexler said. "For the most part, we turned up our defensive intensity at the beginning of the second half.

"The crowd was phenomenal," Drexler said. "They definitely helped us out with our little run in the second half."

Cincinnati captain Kenyon Martin eventually put the nix on UH's effort with seven straight points over the next three and a half minutes to widen the gap to 72-58.

UH countered with its last run of the game, a seven-point spurt, to bring the game to 72-65 with just over two minutes left to play.

But that would be all the fun the Bearcats would allow. Cincinnati's Ryan Fletcher scored the last five points of the game as UH was unable to make anything of its final opportunities.

"Our guys played with a lot of heart," Drexler said. "I'm very proud of their effort. Our big guys played great against the best player in the country (Martin), and Gee had another great game."

UH senior guard Roy Spears: "All week, people were telling us, 'don't get blown out, don't get dunked on ...,' so we tried to play hard enough to win this game."

Although the effort wasn't quite enough to get the win against the nation's top team, it was more than enough to send UH's second sellout crowd of the season home with a smile on its face.