The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
-87, 11 CUSA
North Texas
-69, 03 CUSA
UAB Downs North Texas in Final Seconds
1/5/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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DENTON, Texas - The prettiest part of UAB’s visit to North Texas on Thursday night, at least from a Blazer perspective, was the final score. Fortunately for the Blazers that’s the most important thing, which means that UAB head coach Robert Ehsan was a happy man after his team scratched and clawed its way to a 54-52 Conference USA victory over the Mean Green at the Super Pit.
Junior forward William Lee provided the winning points when he drove to the basket and muscled in a short bucket with 5.9 seconds remaining while absorbing the contact of a Mean Green defender. Lee converted the subsequent free throw and the Blazers (8-7 overall, 1-1 C-USA) walked away as winners moments later when the Mean Green’s Ryan Woolridge missed a 15-foot jumper.
“It was great win, our team needed that,” Ehsan said. “I told the guys, we’ve been fighting and we’ve been sticking with the process. For us to grind out that win, I think is what this team needed and hopefully it will give us a lot of confidence going forward.”
The obvious hero was Lee, who finished with 19 points, four rebounds and five blocked shots, but he wasn’t the only player who helped UAB overcome a lead that stretched to as many as eight points in the second half. Denzell Watts, who started for the first time this season, hit four clutch 3-pointers in the second half and Chris Cokley made several big buckets down the stretch.
With all that, though, it still was far from smooth for a Blazer team that opened C-USA play last Sunday with a loss at Middle Tennessee.
The Blazers came out quickly on Thursday, building a 9-2 lead behind seven early points by Lee. The early lead, however, wasn’t a sign of things to come. Instead, the Blazers went cold from the field and North Texas was able to surge ahead. The Mean Green (6-9 overall, 0-3 C-USA) carried a 27-23 lead into halftime after a late bucket by Ja’Michael Brown.
A big part of the problem for the Blazers was the inability to take care of the basketball. They committed 11 turnovers in the first half.
North Texas, which led for 28 minutes and 31 seconds of the 40-minute game, controlled the game for much of the second half. But UAB refused to fold, largely because of big baskets by Watts and Cokley. All four of Watts’ 3-pointers came at key moments while Cokley’s buckets were equally as timely.
The duo combined for seven consecutive points to trim a 50-42 North Texas lead to a 50-49 Blazer deficit with 1:59 left. Watts started the run with a 3-pointer from the right corner. Cokley then tipped in a Lee miss and scored on a layup after a nice dish from Lee.
The teams traded possessions with no points before Lee blocked a shot with just over a minute left. Cokley then followed up a missed Watts’ 3-pointer to give UAB a 51-50 lead with 51.5 seconds remaining.
“He looked more like (himself),” Ehsan said of Cokley. “He was efficient, he was aggressive around the rim. I thought that was kind of the old Chris Cokley. Hopefully that will continue going forward.”
It took North Texas 30 seconds to regain the lead on a short jumper by J-Mychal Reese. Ehsan called a timeout with 19 seconds remaining to set up the Blazers’ final possession. The Blazers worked the ball around the perimeter before Lee took the ball and drove toward the basket. His big-time conversion gave UAB the win.
Afterwards, Ehsan praised Lee for his work on both ends of the floor.
“The thing I thought Ha-Ha (Lee) did at the end of the game was go in and blocked shots,” Ehsan said. “He blocked two or three huge shots. That’s what we need from him and those were big-time stops for us. And I was happy to see that last one go in.”
The Blazers now move on for their third consecutive C-USA road game with a visit to Rice on Saturday night. Fortunately, they’ll take momentum with them on the trip to Houston.
“I think it’s huge for our confidence, we needed to get one,” said Ehsan, whose team only committed five turnovers after halftime on Thursday. “These guys have been in a lot of games. It doesn’t matter how good you’re playing, how hard you’re playing, a road conference game is very, very difficult. For us to get one tonight, I’m very happy for the guys and we need to build off it.”
