The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
16-3, 6-0
Rice
6-13, 1-5
Blazers Hold Off Rice on Record Night
1/21/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Box Score (PDF) | Photo Gallery | Postgame Quotes
By Steve Irvine, UABSports.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - UAB secured a slice of history on Thursday night with an 82-70 Conference USA victory over Rice at Bartow Arena.
With the win, head coach Jerod Haase's Blazers (16-3 overall, 6-0 C-USA) set a new school record with their 20th straight victory at Bartow Arena. It also was the team's 13th consecutive victory, which tied a school record set during the 1991-92 season, and remains the second longest current winning streak in the nation. They did it in front of a crowd of 5,553, which included a school-record 1,591 students.
The importance of the moment - at least from a historical standpoint - was not lost on the UAB players.
"It's an amazing feeling," said sophomore point guard Nick Norton. "On those home visits, when Coach Haase and the other coaches come talk to you, they tell you about these things that have happened and might happen. Give all the credit to Coach Haase and what he's done with us, allowing us to come together. I'm just glad to be able to do it for Birmingham."
However, Haase made it obvious afterward in his postgame press conference that his focus, at least for now, is what happens in the future.
"We're talking about it a lot more right now in this room with you guys than we have as a team," Haase said. "I think the team has done of nice job of buying into the coach speak of `Next game, next practice, we've got to improve.' We absolutely have to learn lessons from the game tonight and apply those lessons to the game on Saturday (against visiting North Texas). We haven't talked about it, except for one sentence after the game, and we won't talk about it again."
That doesn't mean that Haase isn't proud of his team for stringing together the impressive home court streak, which is, currently, the 10th longest in the nation.
"At the end of the year, maybe we'll talk about it and celebrate it, but I'd rather it be longer than what it is right now," said Haase, whose team also grabbed sole possession of first place in C-USA with Marshall's loss at Charlotte.
Rice (6-13 overall, 1-5 C-USA) led for just 11 seconds during Thursday night's game but it was still far from easy UAB, even though it appeared that the Blazers were in control after the first 20 minutes. The Blazers led, 42-32, at halftime but Haase wasn't satisfied.
"In the first half, our numbers were phenomenal but they missed a lot of open shots," said Haase, whose team limited Rice to 31.3 shooting in the first half. "I didn't think we were great defensively in the first half."
Things got worse at the opening of the second half. Rice ran off 10 consecutive points over the first three minutes to tie the game. During that span, Haase replaced all five starters and let them know his displeasure with their effort.
"He got into us on the sideline a little bit," said senior Robert Brown. "I don't think we were playing terrible necessarily, but we didn't have that look in our eye, that fire that he wanted coming out of halftime. During that little stretch, he kind of fired us up."
The Blazers eventually responded.
"Just getting back to what we do," Haase said when asked what changed. "More than anything else it was energy. We came out flat, we came out passive and those two things don't work. We have to be a team where we play extremely hard and share the basketball. "
UAB began to do a better job of that but still had trouble pulling away until the final 10 minutes. The Blazers finally pulled away with an 8-2 run that turned a seven-point advantage into a 69-56 lead with 6:18 remaining. The quick burst began with a 3-pointer by Norton and also featured a three-point play by Brown. Rice never cut the deficit below double digits the rest of the way.
"When push came to shove, we were able to get it going again," Haase said. "We shared the basketball a little bit more and played with a little bit more passion."
Brown finished with a team-high 19 points and added seven rebounds. Norton had 18 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals. The two were a combined 10-of-15 from the field and 13-of-15 from the foul line. Chris Cokley also reached double figure scoring with 11 points to go with eight rebounds.
UAB dominated on the boards, outrebounding the Owls, 50-35, but finished with more turnovers (18) than assists (15) for just the second time this season.
The Blazers look to continue their winning ways Saturday at 7 p.m. when UAB hosts North Texas at 7 p.m. from Bartow Arena.
The Conference USA Men's and Women's Basketball Championships are set to return to Birmingham for the second consecutive year, marking the third time the Blazers will host the event. The men's tournament, as well as the women's semifinals and championship, will be played at Legacy Arena in downtown Birmingham, while the women's first round and quarterfinal action will take place at UAB's Bartow Arena.
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