The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
-149, 73 CUSA
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UTEP
-714, 54 CUSA
UAB Falls on the Road to UTEP
2/2/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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EL PASO, Texas - Second half struggles were too much to overcome for the UAB men’s basketball team as the Blazers dropped a 63-59 Conference USA decision to UTEP on Thursday night at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso.
The Blazers carried a nine-point advantage into the halftime locker room but turnovers and missed free throws played a big role in the second half difficulties. The good news is that UAB (14-9 overall, 7-3 C-USA) still sits in second place in the Conference USA standings. However, the Blazers now share second place with Louisiana Tech and Old Dominion.
“Give them credit,” said UAB head coach Robert Ehsan. “They continued to fight. The most disappointing thing was they got down and they continued to fight in the second half and played with more aggression than we did. I think that set the tone for a bad second half.”
The first half was far from pretty but the Blazers still managed to lead nearly the entire 20 minutes and led, 28-19, at halftime. UTEP (7-14 overall, 5-4 C-USA) shot just 31.8 percent from the field in the first half and the Blazers kept standouts Omega Harris and Matt Willms from having a big impact.
UAB also didn’t play well offensively in the first half but the Blazers had enough balance to build the comfortable lead.
Things changed quickly in the second half. The Miners turned up the pressure defense and scored 10 of the first 12 second half points to pull within one point at 30-29. Tosin Mehinti countered with the next three points and Hakeem Baxter hit a 3-pointer to build the advantage back to 36-29. However, that momentum didn’t last.
“They did a good job of changing defenses, we knew they would,” said Ehsan. “I thought the trapping made us hesitant. I think it did bother us a little bit. It was unfortunate, I thought we had some good looks we didn’t make. And, for the first time in a while, free throw shooting really got us.”
UAB had eight of its 13 turnovers in the second half and was just 9-of-18 from the free throw line overall. That wasn’t part of a recipe for success, particularly on a night that featured a hot-shooting opponent in the second half. Harris scored 19 of his 23 points after halftime and Willms had eight of his 14 points in the final 20 minutes.
UTEP led for most of the final 11 minutes with the lead peaking at 56-46 with 4:08 remaining. However, despite its offensive woes, UAB didn’t go away easily. The Blazers chipped away at the lead and Baxter’s 3-pointers with 1:38 left trimmed the UTEP lead to 58-55. Harris quickly answered with his own 3-pointer, though, and the Miners were able to hold on for the win.
The loss overshadowed a nice game by Mehinti, who hit all five of his shots from the field. He scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds. The Blazers also had a strong game on the boards, outrebounding the Miners, 39-32, and winning the second chance point category, 11-2.
However, it wasn’t enough as the Blazers now look to rebound on Saturday at UTSA.
“We’re going to have to have a 40-minute mindset,” Ehsan said of his team’s next challenge. “Tonight, I thought we had it for about 20. We can’t afford to do that on Saturday.”
