The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
16-15, 9-9
FIU
7-24, 3-15
Blazers Fall to FIU in Regular Season Finale
3/4/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 4, 2017
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Michael Kessens and Eric Lockett scored 14 points apiece and FIU defeated UAB 68-56 Saturday evening in the regular season finale from Bartow Arena.
UAB will be the seventh seed in next week's Conference USA Tournament and will face No. 10 seed Charlotte Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at Legacy Arena. If the Blazers advance, UAB will take on second-seeded Louisiana Tech Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
Hakeem Baxter led UAB with 14 points and Chris Cokley added 10 points and seven rebounds.
"FIU has given us problems this year," UAB head coach Robert Ehsan said. "They beat us down there and tonight we had a tough time with them again. I give them and their coach a lot of credit for keeping those guys together."
FIU shot 48.5 percent in the first half and built a 20-9 lead midway through the period. UAB cut the deficit to four points on a jumper from Nate Darling, but the Panthers pushed the lead back to 10 two minutes later on a trey from Elmo Stephen.
Baxter hit a three-pointer in the final minute to leave UAB trailing 38-32 at halftime.
The Blazers scored the first six points of the second half and pulled even with FIU at 38-38. The two teams went back-and-forth for the next four minutes before FIU used a 7-0 run to open up a 49-42 lead at the 12:32 mark.
With FIU ahead by eight points midway through the second half, UAB used a dunk from Cokley and two free throws by Tosin Mehinti to climb within four points. Stephen responded with another three-pointer and FIU upped its lead to 58-51.
UAB trimmed the lead two three points on consecutive baskets from Mehinti and William Lee, but FIU answered with a layup by Kessens and a dunk from Eric Lockett to go back on top by seven.
The Panthers went 6-for-6 from the free throw line over the final 36 seconds to seal the victory.
"We've had a really difficult time keeping really fast and smaller guards out of the paint," Ehsan added. "Given all of that, we didn't shoot the ball well from three-point range despite having a ton of open looks."
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