The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
East Carolina
Blazers Pull Away From Pirates, 82-62
2/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 28, 2009
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP)--Robert Vaden scored 18 points, all in the second half, and freshman Cameron Moore equaled that total with his career high to lead UAB to an 82-62 Conference USA victory Saturday over East Carolina.
The Blazers (20-9, 10-4 Conference USA) outscored ECU, 48-28, in the second half to win for the seventh time in eight games. UAB's outburst midway through the second half included a 22-3 run.
The Pirates (13-15, 5-10) have lost four consecutive games.
UAB, which lost a hard-fought contest Thurday at home to No. 4-ranked Memphis, started slowly in the game. Head coach Mike Davis quickly made substitutions that turned out to provide a spark for the Blazers.
"I thought we came out kind of slow," said Davis, whose team will face another difficult road challenge Wednesday at UTEP. "We started slow and that's why I made some subs earlier than we usually do. I thought everybody who came in gave us something. This was really a great team effort for our basketball team. We got everybody going."
Moore and Howard Crawford, along with Channing Toney, accounted for 30 of the team's 34 points in the opening half.
Knotted at 34-34 at the half, UAB used a 28-6 second-half run overall to turn a 42-42 tie with 14:46 left in the game into a 70-48 lead with 6:06 remaining.
Vaden, who leads the conference with 3.1 3-pointers a game, hit two 3-pointers in the run and finished with three. Vaden broke out of his recent shooting slump by scoring all 18 of his points in a span of just under eight minutes. "Once he got that layup, I thought he really got going," said Davis. "He hit some big-time shots."
Howard Crawford had 13 points for UAB. But it was Moore who came into the game averaging less than three points a game who scored his career-best 18.
"Cam came in and was super for us tonight," said Davis. "He really helped get us going. He has potential through the roof. He's going to be an outstanding player at UAB once he understands that effort is the key."
UAB hit 50 percent (17-of-34) of its field goals in the second half. ECU connected on only 36.7 percent from the field for the game.
"I'm really proud of our guys," said Davis. "We are playing good basketball right now and I just hope we can keep playing good basketball."
Jamar Abrams led East Carolina with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Sam Hinnant and Brock Young added 10 points each.
UAB will be on the road again for its next game as the Blazers travel to El Paso, Texas to take on the UTEP Miners on Wednesday, March 4.
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