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  Friday, Dec. 22 6:30pm ET
Satterfield, Bearcats triumph in OT
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

BAYAMON, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Cincinnati finally left Alabama behind for good in the Puerto Rico Holiday Classic title game.

The Bearcats (No. 20 ESPN/USA Today, No. 22 AP) scored the first eight points of overtime en route to a 77-74 victory over the Crimson Tide (No. 18 ESPN/USA Today, No. 17 AP) on Friday night.

Cincinnati championship
Cincinnati players celebrate their 77-74 overtime win over Alabama on Friday.
The great start to the extra five minutes was even more impressive because Cincinnati had seemed to have the game locked up, leading by 13 points with four minutes to play.

"I thought our defensive effort in the overtime was outstanding," Bearcats coach Bob Huggins said. "We were tired. That's five games in eight days. That's a lot of games."

The last four were wins and the last of those came behind the 23 points of Kenny Satterfield, the tournament MVP who had six points in the overtime, including the middle four of the run to open it.

"We just continued to play hard even after we lost that lead because we really believe that as long as we continue to play hard good things will happen," Satterfield said.

The Bearcats (8-2) led by 14 points at halftime and also saw that lead disappear as the Crimson Tide (9-1) got within 51-48 with 8:26 to play.

Steve Logan scored nine of his 13 points in an 11-1 run that gave the Bearcats a 62-49 lead with 3:59 to play in regulation. The junior guard who wasn't expected to play again in the tournament after spraining his left ankle early in the second half of the opener, came up big for the second straight game.

"It started coming to me and when I get an open look I'm going to knock it in," Logan said. "You can't let a run like that happen. I just took what they gave me."

But it did happen again.

Alabama sophomore guard Rod Grizzard, who had 23 points against Cincinnati and 78 in the three games, had half the points in the Crimson Tide's 18-7 run to close regulation. All his points in that run came on 3-pointers, but the ones that forced overtime came on two free throws by Antoine Pettway with four seconds left.

Pettway, whose only other points until then were a 3 with 1:05 left that made it 64-62, made the first free throw after being fouled by Logan on a drive to the basket.

He missed the second, but Cincinnati's Donald Little was called for a lane violation and Pettway made the next one to make it 67-67.

Huggins felt a double violation should have been called and that would have given the ball to the Bearcats because of the possession arrow.

Logan missed a long 3 at the regulation buzzer.

"I guess they felt Donald stepped in first," Huggins said.

Alabama missed its first five shots in the overtime as Cincinnati opened with the 8-0 run. Satterfield made one free throw with 17 seconds left to make it 77-72 and Pettway scored on a layup at the final buzzer for the final margin.

"We rushed a lot," Grizzard said in explaining the start to the overtime. "The things we were supposed to do we didn't capitalize on and we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off for a while. It was only three minutes but it killed us."

Alabama coach Mark Gottfried agreed that his team was playing at the wrong speed.

"We just rushed," he said. "We finished regulation with a flow but we played the overtime at the same speed when we needed to slow it down and execute together."

Leonard Stokes had 14 points for Cincinnati and was the man assigned to cover Grizzard.

"Leonard played great defense on him," Satterfield said, "but he just jumped up in the air and shot right over him with a hand in his face. You can't ask for better defense."

Terence Meade had 15 points for Alabama, while Erwin Dudley had 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Logan had 18 points in the semifinals, including a huge 3-pointer with four minutes left after Clemson had cut a 15-point deficit to two.

"It's a little sore and rough right now," Logan said of his ankle. "But I'll take care of it with a couple days off and I'll soak it and massage it."

The title game was the third on the final day of the tournament to go overtime.

Washington beat Clemson 77-76 in overtime in the third-place game, while Youngstown State beat Northern Iowa 79-76 in double overtime in the fifth-place game.
 


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