University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles Host No. 5/6 Cincinnati
1/23/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Southern Miss - Cincinnati Game Notes
Eagles Host No. 5/6 Cincinnati
HATTIESBURG, MISS. -- Southern Miss entertains Cincinnati, Saturday, in Conference USA action in Green Coliseum in a game that starts at 1 p.m., and that will be televised on ESPN Plus. Lou Canellis will handle play-by-play for the game, with Charles Davis doing color commentary.
The game will be available on Comcast in Hattiesburg on cable channel 25, as well as most other Comcast systems on the CSS channel.
The Bearcats enter the game ranked No. 6 in the current A.P. poll and No. 5 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll. That makes the 2003-04 Bearcats the 5th highest-ranked team ever to play in Green Coliseum, and Cincinnati holds two of the four higher spots. The Bearcats played in Hattiesburg in 1999 as the No. 3-ranked team in the country and in 1996 as the No. 4-ranked team. Cincinnati won the '99 game, 54-52, and the '96 game, 75-70.
Louisville, the No. 3 ranked team at the time, beat Southern Miss 95-76 in 1989, and Memphis, ranked No. 4, defeated the Eagles, 78-63, in a 1985 game.
Cincinnati is coming off a 93-66 loss at Louisville Wednesday night. Southern Miss last played Jan. 16, when the Golden Eagles beat Marquette, 83-61, in a game played in Green Bay, Wis.
Southern Miss beat Cincinnati the last time the two teams met, in the first round of last season's C-USA Tournament in Louisville, Ky., a 63-61 decision in a game in which Greg Johnson scored a game-high 21 points and Charles Gaines and Jasper Johnson added 15 each.
The Bearcats are led by the threesome of Jason Maxiell (14.6), Tony Bobbitt (14.1) and Field Williams (13.1). Cincinnati averages 82.4 points a game, and gives up just 60.9. They shoot .475 (408-859) as a team, along with a solid .386 (105-272) from 3-point range. Cincinnati also uses a strong defense to limit opponents to .387 shooting from the field. That defense also has produced 312 turnovers, while the 'Cats have given it up only 181 times.
For Southern Miss, Gaines continues to lead in both scoring (15.5) and rebounding (9.8). He gets help from Jasper Johnson (12.9) and Greg Johnson, who pushed his average to 9.6 points a game with a season-high 24 points in the Marquette game.
Following today's game, the Eagles go back on the road for games at TCU (Jan. 28). Tulane (Jan. 31) and then back to Texas, playing at Houston (Feb. 3).
