The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
15-10, 8-4
Charlotte
11-12, 5-7
Blazers Flex Muscles in Victory Over Charlotte
2/9/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 9, 2017
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The game plan, drawn up by UAB head coach Robert Ehsan and his staff, called for the Blazers to attack Charlotte's defense in the paint during Thursday night's Conference USA contest at Bartow Arena.
It may not have worked to perfection but it was pretty darn close as the Blazers pounded out 52 points in the paint during an 82-69 victory over the 49ers.
UAB's three most prominent inside contributors -- Chris Cokley, William Lee and Tosin Mehinti -- scored a combined 37 points and hit 17-of-28 shots from the field. UAB outscored Charlotte by 24 points in the paint.
"That was the game plan," said Lee, who had 15 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots. "Coach told us to attack inside out. I think, at one point, we were shooting like 85 percent in the paint. We kept going inside, we kept going inside."
The Blazers (15-10 overall, 8-4 C-USA) also dominated on the boards, outrebounding Charlotte, 48-26. The Blazers easily won the offensive rebound battle, 15-3, and outscored the 49ers, 20-5, in second chance points.
"A huge emphasis was to go inside for the offensive rebounds," Ehsan said. "I thought, in particular, until Dirk (Williams) made that stretch of 3s (in the second half), I didn't think we shot the ball very well. But we were getting offensive rebounds, which is one of the reasons we shot 50 percent. We had a size advantage against them, we knew that going in."
Another big stat for the Blazers was the bench production. UAB outscored Charlotte off the bench, 38-12, with Cokley (19 points, seven rebounds, two assists in 23 minutes) and Deion Lavender (10 points, two assists) providing a large chunk of those points.
"The thing I was most proud of was multiple contributions from multiple guys," Ehsan said.
Cokley and Lavender played a big part in getting UAB untracked after a sluggish beginning overall. The two combined for all but two points in a first half spurt that helped UAB turn a 11-6 deficit into a 20-14 lead midway through the first half.
UAB or Charlotte (11-12 overall, 5-7 C-USA) couldn't create much separation for most of the first half, until back-to-back buckets in the paint by Cokley and Lee gave UAB a 39-29 advantage with about three minutes left before halftime. Charlotte countered with six consecutive points before Cokley scored the final points on a short jumper to give UAB a 41-35 lead at halftime.
It was Charlotte who had the upper hand early in the second half as the 49ers surged in front in the first four minutes after intermission. UAB then hit some key 3-pointers to build a comfortable margin. Denzell Watts connected from the left wing with 13:08 remaining to start a 19-10 run over the next nine minutes.
Dirk Williams had a huge hand in that stretch as he scored 11 points, including a trio of 3-pointers. Williams final 3-pointer gave UAB a 72-59 lead with 4:20 remaining.
"I started the game rushing my shot," said Williams. "When I sat down on the bench, I had to relax myself. I started to relax and take time on my shots and follow through."
Ehsan pointed out that Williams provided more than just outside shooting. The 6-foot-5 senior also added six rebounds and tied a career high with five assists.
"When he can impact the game in more ways than just shooting, it makes us that much better of a team," said Ehsan, whose team had 19 assists and nine turnovers.
The final piece to UAB's win was a defensive effort that held one of the conference's top offensive teams to 13 points under their scoring average. Charlotte managed to make nine 3-pointers but took 29 shots from outside the stripe. The 49ers shot 36.7 from the field in the second half and 41.4 percent overall.
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