Cincinnati Gets Past Temple Zone Again

Maybe Bob Huggins should write a book on how to solve John Chaney’s pesky matchup zone.

Cincinnati did it for the fifth time in four seasons Sunday and earned a trip to the Sweet 16 with a 78-65 victory over Temple in the Southeast Regional.

Damon Flint made four three-point shots and scored 22 points and Darnell Burton made five three-point shots, including three during a 19-2 run the second-seeded Bearcats used to open a 15-point second-half lead.

Temple (20-13) closed to 64-61 with 3:32 to go, then missed 12 of its final 13 shots to fall from the tournament with a loss to Cincinnati (27-4) for the second consecutive year.

“We played a team that didn’t look too explosive against the zone two days ago against North Carolina Greensboro. But then they came out shooting today,” Chaney said after Cincinnati made 10 of 24 three-point shots.

Burton finished with 18 points and Danny Fortson, the Conference USA player of the year, scored 13 of his 18 after halftime.

The Sweet 16 appearance will be Cincinnati’s third in five years under Huggins, who took over a moribund program seven seasons ago and took the Bearcats to the Final Four in 1992.

Marc Jackson led Temple with 13 points, all in the second half. Levan Alston kept the Owls close with 12 first-half points, while most of Jackson’s scoring came during the 17-4 run the Owls put together to get back into the game.

The teams have played each other so often in the last four seasons that the players say they almost feel like conference opponents. Cincinnati is 5-1 against the Owls since 1992, including a 21-point victory in the regular season and a six-point victory in the first round of last year’s West Regional.

One of the keys to the Bearcats’ success against Chaney’s tough matchup zone has been their ability to make three-point shots. Flint made four of them in the first half and had 16 of Cincinnati’s 34 points at intermission.

Georgia Tech 103, Boston College 89--A few more games like this might make it much harder for Stephon Marbury to turn down the NBA.

Marbury, the nation’s most heralded freshman, could not be stopped, scoring a career-high 29 points for the Yellow Jackets.

“Today, you saw Stephon Marbury,” Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Cremins said. “You saw why there was so much talk about him coming out of high school.”

Too quick and too big for any of the Eagle guards who tried to slow him, Marbury controlled the tempo until leaving with 1:20 left. His performance, spiced with between-the-legs dribbles, no-look passes and poise in the face of full-court pressure, was the kind that have many thinking he’s ready for the NBA.

Marbury made 10 of 12 shots. He also had nine assists, four steals and no turnovers, constantly finding the open man as Georgia Tech (24-11) used its highest-scoring game of the season to advance to the Sweet 16 for the third time in seven years.

Boston College (19-11), which had been 5-0 in second-round games, never challenged after Georgia Tech reeled off a 20-5 run for a 39-27 lead with four minutes left in the first half.