The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
6-6
Texas
6-5
UAB Falls on the Road to Texas
12/21/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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AUSTIN, Texas - The UAB men's basketball team fell into a first-half hole and never fully recovered during a 96-60 loss to Texas on Wednesday night at the Frank Erwin Center.
It was the second time this season that the Blazers (6-6) faced a big first half deficit against one of the top teams in the Big 12. But the script was a little different than when Kansas scored the game's first 17 points in an early season victory over the Blazers.
This time, the Blazers were right there for the first 13 minutes - trailing 23-20 with 7 minutes remaining in the half. However, the Longhorns (6-5) used an 18-3 burst over the next five minutes to take control and eventually carry a 43-27 lead into halftime.
"We were right there for a good portion of the first half and then it slowly started to get away from us," said UAB head coach Robert Ehsan. "I just thought the execution and the effort at times was unacceptable. We didn't come in here and compete like we have been in practice, which is disappointing from my end. I told the guys it's unacceptable. We're much better than we played tonight. This will not happen again."
The Blazers never were able to get back in the game in the second half but did receive some positive minutes off the bench from freshman guard Nate Darling and sophomore post player Thomas Smallwood. Darling hit all three of his shots from the field, including a 3-pointer, and Smallwood had six points on 3-of-4 shooting from the field.
UAB senior Dirk Williams led the Blazers with 13 points. He was 5-of-10 from the field and 1-of-5 on 3-pointers.
"Nate Darling and Thomas Smallwood came in and, I thought, gave us some good minutes," Ehsan said. "Dirk was shooting the ball a little bit better, which we're going to need down the stretch. There was not a whole lot (positive) when you lose like we did."
One of the bigger problems on Wednesday night was turnovers. The overall number wasn't that lopsided. UAB had 18 turnovers and the Longhorns turned it over 12 times. But what they did with those turnovers made a huge difference. Texas had 29 points off turnovers while UAB scored just eight points off the Longhorn miscues.
"I think they had 16 points off our turnovers in the first half alone, which is just outrageous," Ehsan said. "A lot of them led to easy layups. After they came after us and built that lead, I thought our focus dropped off."
UAB has some time to regroup with the upcoming holidays. The Blazers will take a few days off before coming back together to prepare for the Dec. 28 game against Miles College at Bartow Arena.
