The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
13-8, 6-2
Louisiana Tech
14-7, 6-2
Hot Shooting Leads UAB to Victory over Louisiana Tech
1/26/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 26, 2017
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The UAB men's basketball team took an important step forward in Conference USA play with a 79-70 victory over Louisiana Tech on Thursday night at Bartow Arena in a game that was marred by a skirmish between the teams late in the second half.
"I thought it was a very unfortunate ending to a really good 34 minutes of basketball, especially for us," said UAB head coach Robert Ehsan. "(It was) two of the better teams in Conference USA. I think it's not a fair representation of our program or Coach (Eric) Konkol's program in the melee that happened at the end. From a basketball standpoint, I thought for 34 minutes, we didn't play great the whole time but we made some big runs, we made some big shots, we played confident (and) were able to build a sizable lead going down the stretch."
UAB (13-8 overall, 6-2 C-USA) began building the advantage from the outset and never trailed in a game that moved the Blazers into a second place C-USA tie with Louisiana Tech (14-7, 6-2). The Blazers scored the game's first seven points with Hakeem Baxter providing the first basket with a game-opening 3-pointer.
The Blazers hit an offensive lull for a while in the first half before Denzell Watts pumped some life back in the offense from long range. Watts hit all three of his first half 3-point attempts in the final 7:15 minutes to help the Blazers build a double-digit lead. The Blazers eventually led 38-32 at halftime.
"When they went to that zone, I thought Denzell made some big shots," Ehsan said. "He makes three 3s, Dirk (Williams) makes one from the corner in that 1-3-1. I thought that extended our lead."
UAB came out blazing in the second half -- making its first five shots and seven of the first nine overall. Within five minutes, the lead had grown to 51-38 with Tosin Mehinti's layup after a nice move provided the final points of what was a 13-6 run to open the half.
The Blazers kept control for the rest of the way, partly thanks to sharing the scoring load. Four players ended up in double figures with Dirk Williams leading the way with 17 points. Chris Cokely added 15 points, William Lee had 13 points and 10 rebounds and Deion Lavender had 10 points. Watts just missed double digits with nine points.
The incident happened with 6:03 left in the game, shortly after UAB junior forward Cokley scored on a short jumper, to give the Blazers a 63-50 lead, while being fouled. Before Cokley could take his free throw, however, the teams began the skirmish. After order was restored, the referees went to the replay monitor to figure out the punishment. UAB senior guard Hakeem Baxter and Louisiana Tech guard Jacobi Boykins were each ejected for their role in the incident and both teams had multiple players and coaches ejected for leaving the bench area.
UAB had six players eligible to play after the ejections and Louisiana Tech was forced to finish with four players.
"Interesting," Ehsan said when asked what the final six minutes were like for him. "As a coach, you have five guys, they have four, you better not mess it up. I was probably over-analyzing it. Should we play man? Should we play zone? I had never been in that situation. We were fortunate to be able to hold the basketball and get some layups. We did take too many 3s but Dirk made a couple."
Williams hit back-to-back 3-pointers to help UAB build its largest lead at 76-60 and the Blazers coasted to the win.
Afterwards, Ehsan talked about his team's locker room demeanor.
"It was somber," Ehsan said. "Hak (Baxter) apologized. We have older guys that are smart. They know this was a big win. We really pumped this game up to them. I thought La Tech was playing as good as anybody and I thought for 34 minutes we played really, really good. I think there is some somberness and we're a little bit of upset on how things happened. We have really good kids who have never been a part of anything like that."
For more information on UAB men's basketball, follow the Blazers on Twitter (@UAB_MBB), Instagram (@blazerhoops) and Snapchat (@UAB_MBB).
