Blazers Down Chattanooga Behind Hot Shooting

Monday, November 13

Bartow Arena

7:00 PM

UAB

2-0

Chattanooga

0-2

Chattanooga

UAB

Blazers Down Chattanooga Behind Hot Shooting

11/13/2017 10:18:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – UAB men's basketball head coach Robert Ehsan didn't need a box score to understand what kind of impact that sophomore Nate Darling had on the Blazers 89-47 victory over Chattanooga on Monday night at Bartow Arena.

He saw it with his own eyes.

But he did use the box score to make a point about Darling's play.

"He scored 19 points and he made only one 3-pointer," said Ehsan, whose team improved to 2-0. "He can do so much more than shoot. He starting to show that."

When Darling, a 6-foot-5 Canadian, showed up at UAB, he was known mostly for his long range shooting ability. By the end of his first college season, he began showing he was much more than that. On Monday, he continued to do that.

"You're seeing a totally different player from freshman to sophomore year," Ehsan said. "Just the confidence he's playing with offensively, he's at another level."

Darling finished with 19 points, one shy of tying his career high set last season against Southern Miss. He was 7-of-11 from the field, 1-of-3 on 3-pointers, and 4-of-4 from the free throw line. He also mixed in three assists, three rebounds and two steals.

"I've got a lot of confidence," said Darling. "I think that comes from my teammates, my coaches, they got a lot of confidence in me. Not really knowing my role last year, it was kind of hard for me to play. This year I've got a significant role. I'm confident in myself, I'm confident in my teammates, I think we've got a great team."

It was certainly a team effort during Monday night's thorough win over the Mocs (0-2). Darling was joined in double digits by Jalen Perry (17 points), Zack Bryant (17 points) and Chris Cokley (12 points). Cokley added 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. Ten of the eleven Blazers who played scored, including freshman Hunter Reynolds, whose 3-pointer was his first points in a UAB uniform.

The onslaught began quickly as the Blazers scored the first 13 points of the game and didn't allow a point until there was 7:06 elapsed from the clock.

"In the past couple of years, we'd get up on a team, blowing them out, and then we'd kind of relax and let them back in the game," Cokley said. "Tonight, I think we did a great job keeping it on them."

The Blazers kept up the defensive pressure and kept spreading out the scoring to take a 43-21 lead into halftime.

It was much of the same in the second half. Chattanooga never threatened in a second half that saw UAB outscore the Mocs, 46-26.

Part of the reason for the lopsided win was a dominating effort on the boards. UAB outrebounded Chattanooga, 51-22, and won the offensive rebound battle, 16-3. The Blazers outscored the Mocs, 42-16, in the paint and had 14 second chance points. UAB's bench also provided 32 points.

"The bench came in and I thought there wasn't a letdown," Ehsan said. "We played just as good with the bench as with the starters."

Cokley said the Blazers had a little added motivation.

"My freshman year, they kind of blew us out (in Chattanooga)," Cokley said of the 83-67 loss in December of 2014. "A bunch of us returning guys, thought this game was more personal than anyone else would, because of the outcome that happened last time."

Count Ehsan, as well as veterans Nick Norton, Lewis Sullivan, William Lee and Cokley, among the people who remembers that evening.

"They ruined our Christmas," Ehsan said. "It was the game before Christmas and they beat the tail off us. Nick, HaHa, Lewis and Chris were all on that team. I tell you, I remember that bus ride home. I think, definitely, those older guys, they came in here with a real edge tonight."

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