North Carolina Wilmington UNC-Wil./Cincinnati Cincinnati Men's College Basketball recap on ESPN

CINCINNATI (AP) -- Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins was pleased when the Bearcats won the Puerto Rico Holiday Classic last week, then returned home for some spirited practices.

But he watched the Bearcats (No. 18 ESPN/USA Today, No. 19 AP) sleepwalk through the first half Thursday night before recovering to beat North Carolina-Wilmington 65-55 with Jamaal Davis providing a needed spark inside in the second half.

"I'm surprised we came out and were so flat. We had a good practice on Christmas night and two good practices coming into this game," Huggins said. "I've seen bad practices, and these were pretty good."

Davis had 16 points and found opportunities for layups and tip-ins to give Cincinnati an inside attack. Center Donald Little, who is trying to help Cincinnati make up for the graduation loss of national player of the year Kenyon Martin, had nine points and 16 rebounds.

"Coach pulled me aside in Puerto Rico and told me I wasn't an offensive player and to concentrate on my strengths -- rebounding, defense, playing hard and running the floor," Little said. "Tonight, I did that."

Davis and Leonard Stokes, who also had 16 points, enabled the Bearcats (9-2) to come back after the Seahawks used some stifling defense and opportunistic offense to take a 28-24 halftime lead.

Davis' performance revived the Bearcats after they had failed to effectively get the ball inside in the first half.

"Their post players outplayed our post players and that was the bottom line," UNC-Wilmington coach Jerry Wainwright said.

UNC-Wilmington (4-5) took a 5-2 lead on Brett Blizzard's 3-pointer in the opening minutes and Cincinnati wasn't able to get the lead back until Little scored inside to make it 32-30 5:04 into the second half.

Davis, Stokes and Kenny Satterfield, who had 10 points, helped Cincinnati pull away.

Little helped keep UNC-Wilmington within striking distance. Otherwise, the Seahawks' defense seemed to frustrate Cincinnati and had Huggins screaming "Shoot the ball" several times from the sideline.

Blizzard finished with 17 points, while Ed Williams had 15 for the Seahawks, who had won two straight games.

The Bearcats came out in the second half with a full-court press to rattle UNC-Wilmington and gradually took control of the game.

Blizzard and Stewart Hare hit 3-pointers in the game's closing minutes, but it wasn't enough to overcome Cincinnati's revived defense.

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