The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
-127, 51 CUSA
Florida Atlantic
-512, 15 CUSA
Blazers Extend Win Streak to Five Games
1/19/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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BOCA RATON, Fla. - The UAB men’s basketball team led for nearly every second on Thursday night’s trip to Florida Atlantic, while extending the Blazers season-high win streak to a season-high five games. However, just as the final score indicates, the 80-78 victory at FAU was far from easy.
“I told the seniors that’s the last time that they get to play in this gym and it was fitting that they ended with a one-possession game,” said UAB head coach Robert Ehsan. “They’ve played well against us down here and I thought we played really good in spurts tonight. To their credit, they made a lot of 3s and made a strong comeback.”
UAB (12-7 overall, 5-1 C-USA) placed five players in double figures and was a near-perfect 15-of-17 from the free throw line. And it took every one of those points, especially a clutch 15-foot jumper by junior forward Chris Cokley that turned a one-possession game into an 80-75 lead with seven seconds left in the game.
“I was yelling at him, ‘Shoot it, shoot it, shoot it,’” said UAB junior forward William Lee. “He finally just turned around and shot it and it went in.”
Lee and Cokley were two of the five players in double figures for the Blazers and both flirted with a double-double. Lee finished with 16 points and nine rebounds and Cokley contributed 15 points and seven rebounds. They were joined in double figures by sophomore guard Deion Lavender (14 points, two assists), senior guard Denzell Watts (11 points, four assists) and senior guard Hakeem Baxter (10 points, three assists).
It was Watts who played a large role in getting the Blazers off to a quick start. Watts hit all three of his successful 3-pointers in the first six minutes as UAB built an 18-4 lead. UAB controlled most of the first half but the Owls used a 10-2 run late in the half to trim the UAB lead to 38-32. Lee closed the half with a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give UAB the 41-32 halftime lead.
The Owls (5-12 overall, 1-5 C-USA) stormed back quickly in the second half, scoring the first nine points before Lee hit a 3-pointer. FAU answered with four consecutive points to take its only lead of the game at 46-44. Lavender helped ignite a 14-2 run with six points during that stretch.
“Deion is playing real well for us,” said Ehsan of Lavender, who scored in double figures for the third time in the five games since he changed roles from starting point guard to sixth man. “He had shown flashes early in the season. Now, he’s just more consistent and I think he’s been playing with a lot of confidence. He’s been huge for us. He was really good handling the basketball (and) getting to the basket for us tonight. I thought he did a great job off the bench.”
UAB had double digit leads three times in the final 10:31 but FAU chipped away at the deficit each time. The Owls finally turned it into a one-possession game with 36.3 seconds left when Gerdarius Troutman had a four-point play to cut UAB’s lead to 78-75.
UAB ran the clock down to 17 seconds before calling a timeout. Moments later, Cokley found himself in the right corner with 7-foot FAU center Ronald Delph close by. Cokley was able to get the shot off the big center and hit perhaps the biggest basket of the night.
“I thought Chris was ready to play today, like he was last game against Marshall,” said Ehsan of Cokley, who had 12 of his 15 points after halftime. “He got in foul trouble again early. I still had a great feeling that he was going to have a really big second half. He got into a groove down low and we starting feeding him the basketball. He made a heckuva shot and Chris is a big-time player.”
Troutman hit his sixth 3-pointer of the game but there was less than one second remaining and UAB held on for the win.
