The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
East Carolina
UAB Bounces Back With Win Over ECU
1/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 23, 2008
Final Stats 
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - Robert Vaden scored 20 points and Howard Crawford added a career-high 15 to lead UAB to a 77-59 victory over East Carolina Wednesday night.
UAB coach Mike Davis went with four first-time starters as the Blazers tried to rebound from a road loss to Marshall. The new starters helped UAB jump to a 20-10 lead, and the Blazers stayed in charge most of the way.
"I've been trying to get our guys to play with more energy, and I thought we gave a pretty good effort tonight," Davis said. "East Carolina is a team that can really shoot the ball. Our energy and effort, especially on the defensive end, was good throughout the game."UAB (13-6, 3-1 USA Conference) got 10 points from Channing Toney and nine rebounds from Jeremy Mayfield.
Darrell Jenkins scored 12 points and John Fields had 11 for East Carolina (7-10, 1-3 CUSA).
An inside basket by Fields pulled East Carolina to within 22-20 with 6:30 left in the first half. But UAB closed the half with a 14-3 run to take a 36-23 lead into intermission.
UAB built a 24-point margin early in the second half, and East Carolina could get no closer than 14 the rest of the way.
The Blazers shot 54.5 percent int he second half (12-of-22) en route to hitting 41.8 percent of their shots in the game. UAB also connected on 8-of-17 treys in the contest (47.1 percent).
Junior forward Reggie Huffman, who came off the bench for the first time this season, finished with eight points, five rebounds and a career-high four steals in the contest.
UAB will have the weekend off before it travels to Orlando, Fla. to take on the UCF Golden Knights on Wednesday, Jan. 30, at 7 p.m. ET.
