The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Louisville
No. 9 Louisville Edges Fiesty UAB, 77-73
2/5/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 5, 2005
By JOHN ZENOR
AP Sports Writer
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - Francisco Garcia and Juan Palacios both hit two free throws in the final 34 seconds to lift No. 9 Louisville to a 77-73 victory over UAB on Saturday night. The Cardinals (20-3, 8-1 Conference USA) closed the game on a 6-0 run after the Blazers briefly took the lead to extend their winning streak to nine.
The crowd of 9,354 established a new Bartow Arena record, surpassing last season's 9,312 fans which saw UAB upset Cincinnati.
"There are a lot of difficult crowds in the nation, but this is as good of a home court crowd as you'll find in college basketball," Louisville head coach Rick Pitino said. "It was a very difficult game for us. I'm proud of our guys that we could withstand all of this and still come away with a victory. This environment was very difficult. We've gone into some really tough places. At Florida, at Cincinnati and now at UAB. They're difficult places to play as well as (teams) being very well coached. A few years ago we would have no shot at winning this game."
Demario Eddins gave UAB (16-6, 6-3) a 71-70 lead with one of two free throws with 1:44 left, then Louisville's stars took over.
He blocked a shot by Demario Eddins on the other end and a long scramble for the ball ended with a jump ball that gave Louisville possession. Palacios put the game away with two free throws with 8 seconds left.
Garcia had 19 points and played the final 3:25 with four fouls. Palacios added 10 points and the Cardinals made 19 of 21 free throws.
The Blazers missed all eight 3-point attempts in the second half for their fourth straight loss in the series.
Eddins scored 18 points, Donell Taylor had 16 and Ronell Taylor 11 for UAB.
The Blazers led 45-43 at halftime but trailed most of the way after that with Louisville opening the second half on an 11-2 run. The Cardinals could never push their lead past seven points in the half, though, and Eddins hit one of two free throws after getting fouled by Garcia with 3:25 left to tie it 70-all.
The matchup of the league's top scoring teams lived up to its billing in the first half, with UAB taking a 45-43 lead on a layup by Brandon Tobias with 6 seconds left off a pass from Squeaky Johnson.
The Blazers trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half but closed on a 19-7 run and shot 55 percent.
"You've got to give Louisville credit," UAB head coach Mike Anderson said. "They're deservedly the ninth-ranked team in the country. They made some big plays tonight. We had our chances and I thought the fans were great. It was an awesome atmosphere and I knew it would be. They got a chance to see a very good basketball game between two teams that were pretty good."
UAB, which leads the nation in steals, forced a modest 14 turnovers.
The Blazers get a week's respite before travelling to TCU next Saturday, Feb. 12 for a 7:05 p.m. CT tipoff against the Horned Frogs.
