The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Opens Home Stand With Centenary
12/19/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 18, 2005
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The UAB men's basketball team opens a three-game home stand when Centenary visits Bartow Arena at 8:30 p.m. CT Monday night. The contest will be the night cap of a triple header of hoops action in Bartow Arena. The women's basketball team's Blazer Invitational consolation contest tips at 4 p.m. while the championship contest begins at 6 p.m.
Mike Anderson's Blazers look to rebound from a road loss at Minnesota last Wednesday. UAB is confident, however, despite the 69-68 setback. Squeaky Johnson's runner as time expired rolled off the rim and the Golden Gophers escaped with what could easily have been a UAB victory.
"We finally get a chance to play a series of games at home," UAB head coach Mike Anderson said. "We're looking forward to it but know we have to play well to win. They beat Birmingham-Southern Saturday, which I'm sure was a big game for them. I'm sure this will be a big game for them as well."
Johnson was near-perfect at Minnesota, hitting 6-of-8 field goals and all three of his three attempts in racking up a career-high 15 points. He also had six assists for the Blazers, who almost knocked off a Big 10 and Big 12 foe in the same year. UAB won at Nebraska, 73-72, on Dec. 3.
Demario Eddins continues to lead the way for UAB, averaging 15.1 points per game. Marvett McDonald has scored his average of 13 points in each of the last three contests as well. Wen Mukubu also scores in double digits for UAB with an average of 11.1 points per game.
UAB is also hoping to avoid its first losing streak of the season. The Blazers have bounced back from their previous two losses by beating Nebraska on the road and Alcorn State at home.
"Our focus against Centenary is to see whether we can put together 40 minutes of Blazer basketball," Anderson said. "Against Minnesota, we played a few minutes of pretty good basketball, but had some mental breakdowns. Now is the time of year that we have to try and clean things up and just try to get better."
Centenary is 2-5 under first-year head coach Rob Flaska, who spent the three previous seasons as an assistant at Arkansas. The Gentlemen are coming off a 79-70 home victory over Birmingham-Southern Saturday.
Their other win on the year is an 84-73 win over Texas-Tyler on Nov. 18, but the Gentlemen have played a difficult non-conference schedule. Centenary has lost at SMU, Ole Miss, Birmingham-Southern and Stephen F. Austin and at home to Northwestern State (La.).
Chris Watson leads Centenary with a 14.9 points per game average, but plays mainly off the bench. Alexander Starr scores 11.9 per game for the Gents as well.
UAB is 1-0 all-time against Centenary after a 97-62 victory over the Gents in Bartow Arena on Feb. 12, 2001.
Monday night's game will air live on the ISP/Blazer Sports Network which can be heard locally in Birmingham on WYDE-101.1 FM.
UAB Men's Basketball Game Notes in PDF Format
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