The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
21-4, 11-1
Southern Miss
7-15, 4-7
Blazers Claim 80-77 Double-OT Win Over Southern Miss
2/11/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Box Score (PDF)
By Steve Irvine, UABSports.com
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Sometimes the script doesn't go quite as expected. But teams that win championships -- or, in this case, continue to put themselves in position to chase a championship -- find a way to win no matter.
On Thursday night, at Reed Green Coliseum, UAB continued its quest toward a Conference USA regular season championship with a gutsy, and somewhat unexpected, 80-77 double overtime victory over a Southern Miss team that entered in a three-way tie for seventh place.
"It's huge," said UAB head coach Jerod Haase. "Our goal is to go in the postseason, play well and do some special things. To be able to get to that point, we're trying to find a way. If we are going to be a big-time team, we're going to have to find a way to win some of those games and we have won some of those games. We're going to continue to put ourselves in position, hopefully, and play well down the stretch."
No one expected Thursday night's visit to Hattiesburg to be easy. But it was hard to anticipate the Golden Eagles (7-15 overall, 4-7 C-USA) throwing in 16 of 38 3-pointers, including 10-of-18 in the second half, and extending the Blazers to the wire, especially coming off back-to-back C-USA losses at UTEP and UTSA.
"We expected a grind but we didn't expect this kind of grind," said UAB forward William Lee. "We expected to go out there and compete but we didn't expect double overtime. But we fought through it and got the W."
Before they could fight through it, though, the Blazers (21-4, 11-1 C-USA) were forced to face adversity. It did not necessarily come in the first half when UAB built a 37-30 halftime lead behind a combined 26 points by Lee, Chris Cokley and Robert Brown.
Things switched quickly in the second half. Southern Miss connected on four 3-pointers in the first four minutes, including three by Kourtlin Jackson to take a 42-40 lead. Brown ended the string with a 3-pointer of his own but the momentum was changed.
"I was disappointed, at the start of the second half, with our ability to challenge the 3-point shot," Haase said. "They hit their first four -- at least -- and then their confidence went from high to through the roof."
UAB was able to build the lead back to 50-43 before Southern Miss went on a 17-4 run over the next six minutes. The Golden Eagles made four consecutive 3-pointers at the end of the run to build a 60-54 lead with 7:48 remaining.
As has been the case most of the year, UAB kept its composure.
"I think it's a trademark of our team," Haase said. "Sometimes I need to make sure there is a pulse there. But there is a quiet confidence that as a team they'll make plays, individually they'll make plays."
UAB eventually tied the game 63-63 after a 6-0 run that included a basket by Brown, a free throw by Cokley and a 3-pointer by Norton with 3:42 left. The teams each scored one more basket -- UAB's coming on a dunk by Cokley with a minute left -- before heading to the first overtime.
The Blazers scored the first four overtime points but the lead was erased by two Southern Miss 3-pointers. Norton sandwiched two layups around a layup by Khari Price. Norton's second layup came after he drove the lane and scored with his left hand to tie the game at 73-73 with 5.9 seconds left.
"I wanted the ball in his hands for him to make a play," Haase said of the plan on Norton's game-tying layup. "I couldn't have more confidence for him to make plays, especially at the end of the game."
Norton said the play didn't develop as originally expected.
"It was just a flat ball screen and play out of it," Norton said. "I saw an opening to my left hand. It's not really meant to go left but I just saw an opening, took it and was able to make a play."
Lee took over early in the second overtime. He hit a 17-foot jumper, threw a nice pass to Cokley for a layup and followed up a Dirk Williams miss from the corner by slamming the rebound home. He also had a defensive rebound in that span, helping UAB take a 79-75 lead with 1:41 left.
"In both overtimes, he started with a jumper to get us started, which is great," Haase said. "In the second overtime, when he was fatigued, he was able to get to the offensive board to get the put back dunk, which put us up four and was a defining moment in the game."
Price hit a short jumper with 1:10 left to cut the deficit back to two points but Southern Miss failed to score again. Hakeem Baxter hit the second of two free throws with 14.8 seconds left and the Golden Eagles missed a pair of 3-pointers at the other end.
Four players finished in double figures in scoring for UAB. Cokley had a team-high 17 points to go with 13 rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal. Lee had 15 points, four rebounds, five assists, four blocked shots and a steal. Norton had 14 points, four assists, four rebounds and two steals. Brown had 13 points and four assist.
UAB not only retained sole possession of first place in C-USA but the Blazers now lead by two games over Middle Tennessee and Marshall. Middle Tennessee lost at Louisiana Tech on Thursday night and Marshall did not play.
