The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Men's Basketball Takes on LaSalle Saturday
12/21/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2001
Game No. 11: December 22, 2001, 12:00 p.m. CST UAB (5-5) vs. LaSalle (5-5) Tom Gola Arena (4,000) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
UAB BLAZERS UAB is 5-5 after winning its fourth straight game in Birmingham, 81-63 over Louisiana Tech. The Blazers have gone 4-2 over the last six games.
P.J. Arnold leads the team, averaging 15.0 points per game. He has averaged 19.5 points over the last three games. Mo Finley is second in scoring, averaging 12.5 points per game. He has started five games and come off the bench five games. Center Will Campbell leads the team in rebounding with 7.9 per game and scores 10.9 points. Campbell has scored in double figures in seven straight games and has two double-doubles.
The Blazers had five guys score in double figures against Louisiana Tech. They have a scoring margin of +22.8 points at home.
Head Coach Murry Bartow is in his sixth season as a collegiate head coach with a record of 95-71 (.572). He has led the Blazers to a 42-36 C-USA record the past five years.
UP NEXT FOR THE BLAZERS UAB hosts Jackson State, Saturday, Dec. 29 at 7:30 CST.
LA SALLE LaSalle is 5-5 with an up and down season. The Explorers defeated Seton Hall 71-68 in their last game. They have won two straight after losing three straight. LaSalle has played just one home game, losing to Rutgers 81-56. They are 3-3 on neutral courts.
Forward Rasual Butler leads the team scoring and rebounding with 23.2 points and 10.6 boards per game. He is making 51.4 percent of his shots from the field and 47 percent from 3-point range. Reggie Okosa is the only other player in double figures, averaging 10.8 points a game.
The Explorers are shooting just 41 percent from the field, but holding opponents to just 40.8 percent. They are also outrebounding the opposition by 2.6 rebounds per game.
Head coach Billy Hahn is in his first year at LaSalle with a 5-5 record. He came to LaSalle after serving as an assistant coach at Maryland. He is 47-50 in is fourth year overall as a head coach. He spent three years as head coach at Ohio University.
UP NEXT FOR LA SALLE LaSalle plays at Marist, Saturday, Dec. 28.
LAST TIME OUT UAB 81, LOUISIANA TECH 63 P.J. Arnold led scored 23 points to lead five different players in double figures as the Blazers cruised over Louisiana Tech. Arnold made 7-of-12 shots from the field and 5-of-8 from 3-point range. The Blazers shot 56 percent from the field, 59 percent in the second half. They led 37-29 at intermission. Tech did cut the margin to 43-37 with 15:54 remaining, but Arnold capped a 10-4 run with a three-pointer with 13:31 left to give the Blazers a 12-points, 53-41 lead. The Bulldogs never got the margin under double figures the rest of the game. UAB built the lead to 21 points at 81-60 before the Bulldogs hit a 3-pointer in the final seconds. Antonae Roberson came off the bench to score 16 points. Will Campbell had 11 points and just missed his second straight double-double with nine rebounds. Eric Batchelor and Eric Bush both scored 10 points. Bush added six assists and had five rebounds. Tech shot just 38 percent from the field. The Bulldogs hit just 17 percent, 4-of-23, from three-point range.
THE LA SALLE SERIES The two teams have split the two games. UAB won in Bartow Arena 73-62 last year in Birmingham. LaSalle won 63-58 in the Paradise Jam Tournament in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands earlier this season.
MURRY BARTOW VS. LA SALLE Murray Bartow is 1-1 against LaSalle, winning in Birmingham last season and losing at the Paradise Jam Tournament earlier this year. He is 0-1 against Billy Hahn, who is in his first year with the Explorers.
LAST TIME VS. LA SALLE La Salle held on for a 63-58 victory over the Blazers in final round play at the Paradise Jam. Mo Finley missed a potential tying three-poiner and Julian Blanks grabbed the rebound off the miss to clinch the game UAB ended the tournament with a fourth place finish and La Salle captured third place. LaSalle led the whole way except at 5-4 Blazer lead and a 10-10 tie. The Explorers shot 48.4 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range in the first half and led at the break 39-25. Reggie Okosa and Rasual Butler each posted double-doubles for the Explorers, Okosa had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Butler posted 17 points and 16 boards. Finley led the Blazers with 13 points. Bush had 12 points, five assists and was a perfect 4-4 from the free throw line. P.J. Arnold added 11 points for UAB. Eric Bush scored nine points in a 10-0 UAB run, that started at the 4:59 mark and cut the lead to 59-56. Okosa broke the run with a layup and Will Campbell answered, tipping in a missed three-point attempt by Bush to put the score at 61-58 with 20 seconds to play.
VS. THE A-10 UAB is 11-9 against schools currently in the Atlantic 10 Conference. This is the third game against an A-10 school this year and the Blazers are 0-2. They lost to LaSalle in the first meeting and also lost to Richmond 60-59 in the only home loss this season. Richmond is in its first year in the league. UAB is 1-1 against both of those teams and Rhode Island. The Blazers were 5-0 against Dayton when they were both members of the Great Midwest Conference. UAB is 1-2 against Temple and Duquesne, 1-0 against Saint Joseph's and 0-1 versus George Washington and Xavier.
UAB ON THE ROAD The Blazers are 0-2 on the opposition's home court, losing 74-69 at Murray State and 82-76 to Virginia Commonwealth. UAB is 1-4 away from Bartow Arena, going 1-2 on the neutral courts at the Paradise Jam Tournament. LOOKING TO GET OVER .500 UAB is looking to get over the .500 mark for the first time since opening the season 1-0 with the win over Eastern Michigan. The Blazers started out 1-3 and have gone 4-2 since that time. UAB evened its record at 4-4 after beating UNLV. However the loss to Virginia Commonwealth dropped the Blazers back to 4-5. UAB once again reached .500 with the win over Louisiana Tech.
KEY WEEK FINISHES UAB is 1-1 in a very key week as far as non-conference play goes. The Blazers lost against a 9-2 Virginia Commonwealth team. They then played one of their best games of the season in defeating Louisiana Tech, 81-63. The Bulldogs beat Auburn on the road and took top 25 Oklahoma to overtime. Now the Blazers get a rematch with LaSalle. The Explorers beat UAB 63-58 in the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas earlier this season. A win and a +.500 record would be a big boost to the Blazers.
SOME TRENDS FOR THE BLAZERS UAB is 5-2 when allowing less than 70 points, but have not won when giving up 70 or more. The Blazers are 5-2 when scoring 70 or more, but 0-3 when scoring under 70. Another trend is if the final margin is by 11 or more points the Blazers win, going 4-0 in games with large margins. However, UAB is 1-5 in games decided by less than 10 points. CLOSE LOSSES UAB is very close to being well above .500. The five losses have been by a total of 19 points. VCU beat the Blazers by its largest margin, six points. In each game, but the VCU match, UAB had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead in the final 30 seconds. The other largest margin of defeat has been five points by both LaSalle and Murray State. Miami won by two points and Richmond by one-point.
ANOTHER SATURDAY ON THE ROAD This is the sixth time the Blazers have played on a Saturday and the fourth time it has been outside of Birmingham. This will be the third time UAB has played out of town in the month of December. They played at Murray State, Dec. 1, UNLV in the BJCC, Dec. 8, at Virginia Commonwealth last Saturday, Dec. 15 and now in Philadelphia. The Blazers are 2-3 so far in Saturday games, beating Eastern Michigan in St. Thomas and UNLV at the BJCC.
REBOUNDING SOLID UAB outrebounded Louisiana Tech 33-31. Tech had been outrebounding its opponents by 12 boards a game. The Blazers have pulled down more boards than the opposition in six of the last seven games and now have a +0.2 rebounding margin. This turnaround comes after being outrebounded by 33 rebounds in the first three games. Murray State is the only team to outrebound the Blazers in the last seven games. A challenge for Saturday night, LaSalle outrebounded the Blazers by 21 boards, 53-32 in the first meeting this season.
BARTOW BLOWOUTS UAB continued its domination of opponents in Bartow Arena with the 18-point win over Louisiana Tech. The Blazers have won their last three games in Bartow Arena by a total of 91 points. That is a margin of 30.3 points per win. Overall UAB has a +22.8 point-scoring margin in Bartow Arena. The Blazers beat Bradley by 32 points, 82-50 and Alcorn State by 41 points, 102-61.The Blazers are shooting 53 percent from the floor at home and 46 percent overall. UAB has shot 59 percent in the last three home games. At home UAB is averaging 81 points per game and 72.5 points away from Bartow Arena.
UAB IN BARTOW ARENA The Blazers are 3-1 in Bartow Arena this season. They are 155-35 (.816) in their 14th year playing in Bartow. The Blazers were 10-5 at home last year. Overall the Blazers are 289-71 (.803) in Birmingham.
THREE BLAZERS OUT Junior forward Sidney Ball, sophomore center Tom Frericks and junior guard Tony Johnson are all out for the game. Frericks had surgery last week for a groin injury and will miss the season. Tony Johnson is scheduled to have surgery on his broken foot later in the year and will also miss the season. Ball is suffering from a stress fracture in is back, and his status is doubtful for the season.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE TWICE Will Campbell and Myron Ransom both recorded double-doubles against VCU. Campbell had 13 points and 12 rebounds and Ransom scored 12 points with 10 rebounds. The Blazers had just two double-doubles in the first eight games.
BATCHELOR SCORING AS STARTER Senior Eric Batchelor has scored in double figures in five of the six games he has started this year. He led the team with 14 points against VCU and has averaged 10.6 points over those last six games. Batchelor came off the bench the first four games and scored just five points, all in the opener against Eastern Michigan. That means he did not score in three of the four games he did not start. For the season he is averaging 6.9 points per game.
RANSOM REINSTATED Senior Forward Myron Ransom will play this game after sitting out the Louisiana Tech game. He was suspended for the one game for ?conduct detrimental to the team,? according to head coach Murry Bartow. He has started eight of the nine games in which he has played and is averaging 10.3 points and 5.8 rebounds per game.
WOODS OUT Sophomore guard Asa Woods is serving an indefinite suspension also for ?conduct and attitude detrimental to the team.? Woods did not play against Louisiana Tech and will not make the trip to LaSalle. His status will be reevaluated after Christmas. The Blazers next game is Dec. 29. Woods has played in five games, averaging 12.2 minutes in those games.
CAMPBELL RETURNS TO FORM Will Campbell just missed recording his third double-double in the last four games with 11 points and nine rebounds against Louisiana Tech. He recorded his second double-double of the year with 13 points and 12 rebounds against VCU. He also had a double-double against Alcorn State. Campbell now has 10 double-doubles for his career. He leads the Blazers in rebounding with 7.9 per game. Last year he was named the C-USA Player of the Week (Feb. 4, 2001) and posted a school-record tying 20 rebounds against Houston (Jan. 31, 2001), marking only the seventh time in league history that a player has notched at least that many in a contest.
SPREADING THE SCORING UAB had five players score in double figures against Louisiana Tech and has four players averaging in double figures this season. Nine of the 10 players who have seen game action have scored in double figures at least once this season. Mo Finley and P.J. Arnold lead the way scoring in double figures eight times this season. Arnold leads the team in scoring, averaging 15 points per game. Finley, who has hit the double-figure mark the last two games, averages 12.5 points. Will Campbell averages 10.9 points, and Myron Ransom's, 10.3 round out the double figure averages. Of the nine players who have scored in double figures, seven have done it two or more times.
ANOTHER YEAR OF INJURIES Unfortunately UAB is following a similar injury path like last season. This year the Blazers have lost 30 player games to injury. Last year the team lost a total of 23 player games due to illness or injury. The biggest loss was Sidney Ball for 11 games. Tony Johnson missed eight games, David Walker two and LeAndrew Bass one. If you throw in both Myron Ransom and Mo Finley, who missed the entire season, then that total is 85 games.
WISH IT WERE THE BRAVES UAB has outscored teams with the nickname Braves, by an average of 36.5 points. The Blazers beat the Bradley Braves 82-50 and the Alcorn State Braves 102-61.
BUSH NAMED TO PARADISE JAM ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM Junior guard Eric Bush was named to the All-Tournament Team at the Paradise Jam (Nov. 17-20). This was his first action of his career for the Blazers. Bush averaged 10.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, six assists and 38.3 minutes of play in three games at the tournament.
A TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE UAB has posted 21 winning seasons in the program's history. Blazer basketball has achieved winning records in 21 of 23 seasons. UAB has finished once at .500 and has had one losing season in its history.
THE EXHIBITION GAMES UAB posted a 2-0 preseason record to begin the 2001-02 season. The Blazers recorded wins over EA Sports (93-75, Nov. 6) and Global Sports All-Stars (76-61, Nov. 2) in their two exhibition games. UAB shot 49.3% from the field against EA Sports and 50.8% against Global Sports All-Stars. From three-point land, the Blazers shot 43.5% against EA Sports and 50.0% against Global Sports All-Stars. P.J. Arnold led UAB in both games, scoring 21 points and grabbing 11 rebounds against EA Sports and posted 18 points and a .67 shooting percentage from the field and from three-point territory against Global Sports All-Stars.
SWEET HOME ALABAMA UAB's roster boasts six players from the state of Alabama. Asa Woods (Sumiton), Mo Finley (LaFayette), Myron Ransom (Birmingham), Sidney Ball (Duncanville), and newcomers Jeffrey Collins (Birmingham) and Lee Cobb (Decatur) all hail from the state. In all, UAB has a total of 10 players from the Southeast.
