The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
-126. 52 CUSA
FIU
-515, 16 CUSA
UAB Drops Road Contest with FIU
1/21/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MIAMI, Fla. - UAB’s season-high five-game winning streak dissolved in a blitz of hot shooting from FIU in the Panthers’ 94-85 Conference USA victory over the Blazers on Saturday night.
The Panthers rarely missed in the second half – hitting 75 percent from the field and the same percentage from 3-point range. Those numbers helped the Panthers shoot 65.3 percent overall from the field and 71.4 percent on 3-pointers overall. FIU also connected on 87 percent from the free throw line. Senior guard Eric Nottage had a career-best 37 points, including six 3-pointers without a miss.
Unfortunately, the FIU offensive blitz overshadowed a strong night by UAB senior point guard Denzell Watts, who hit his first five 3-pointers on the way to a career-high 19 points. He was part of a solid offensive outing for the Blazers, who shot 55 percent from the field and 47 percent on 3-pointers.
“Hats off to FIU,” said UAB head coach Robert Ehsan, whose team fell to 12-8 overall and 5-2 in C-USA. “Nottage had a career night tonight. He was sensational. He averages 10-11 points per game and had 37. Again, hats off to them, they shot the ball extremely well tonight.”
However, it wasn’t just hot shooting, according to Ehsan.
“Any time you give up that many points and a team shoots that good, it’s not just (hot shooting),” Ehsan said. “We were frustrated because we had talked about getting better defensively and I thought we had made strides the last couple of weeks. To have a team score 94 points and have a couple of guys have career nights, was frustrating.”
At the outset, though, it looked like UAB was headed to the hot shooting night. Watts hit back-to-back 3-pointers on the Blazers opening possessions to stake his team to a quick 6-0 lead. FIU countered with the next 16 points to truly set the tone for what turned into a frustrating evening for the Blazers.
The Panthers (5-15 overall, 1-6 C-USA) led by as many as 13 points in the first half but the Blazers chipped away at the deficit just before halftime. UAB outscored FIU, 11-4, over the final 3:53 and entered halftime trailing, 40-39. Deion Lavender pulled UAB within a point with three seconds left in the half by hitting a layup. However, he missed the ensuing free throw after getting fouled.
UAB stayed within striking distance for much of the second half but the Blazers never led because they had trouble stopping the Panthers. Watts scored 11 of the Blazers’ 13 points during one stretch to turn a 63-51 deficit into a 66-64 FIU lead. Nine of Watts’ points during that stretch came on 3-pointers.
“Denzell was huge, he single-handedly brought us back,” Ehsan said. “We’re going to definitely need that down the stretch.
However, as he did all night, Nottage had an answer. He sandwiched a pair of deep 3-pointers around a William Lee free throws to pad the Panthers lead to 72-65.
FIU led 88-74 late in the game but UAB still made the Panthers sweat out a win which snapped a six-game losing streak. Lavender scored the first six points of an 8-0 run that cut the lead to six points. But FIU closed out the win at the free throw line.
Lavender and Chris Cokley each had 17 points but the Blazers didn’t take advantage in the paint. Lee and Tosin Mehinti combined for just nine points and six rebounds.
“My message was we have to improve,” Ehsan said. “We had won five straight and we were very much confident. If you’re not ready to play, it doesn’t matter what the other team’s record is in this league. We’ve experienced that the last couple of years, if you’re not ready to play we can get beat by anybody. We caught a team that was hungry tonight, made a lot of shots and was very confident offensively. This needs to be a learning point.”
