UAB Men’s Basketball Falls on the Road at Memphis, 94-76

Saturday, December 8

Memphis, Tenn.

Noon

UAB

6-2

Memphis

4-4

UAB

Memphis

UAB Men’s Basketball Falls on the Road at Memphis, 94-76

12/8/2018 3:13:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score 2018-19 Season Statistics

MEMPHIS – Despite cutting a 19-point first half lead to four in the second half, the UAB men's basketball team was unable to complete the comeback as the Blazers fell to Memphis 94-76 on Saturday afternoon at FedEx Forum.

UAB (6-3) made nine 3-pointers, including eight in first half and shot 42 percent for the game, but Memphis (5-4) countered with 11 3s of its own finished the game shooting 53.6 percent overall from the floor.

Five players scored in double figures for the Blazers led by Lewis Sullivan with 14, but 24 points from the Tigers' Tyler Harris and 21 from Kyvon Davenport lifted Memphis to victory.

"Give Memphis a lot of credit. I think we dug ourselves too much of a hole," head coach Robert Ehsan said. "I told the team that the score was not indicative of how the game was played in my opinion, nor was it indicative of how we played. I was proud of how we competed, but we let ourselves down defensively. We have taken pride in our defense all year and to not play better defensively was disappointing."

Back-and-forth action in the opening minutes saw Memphis take a 13-10 lead at the first media timeout of the game. Out of that timeout, Memphis used a 9-3 run to gain a 22-13 lead, forcing UAB into its first timeout of the half with 11:55 remaining.

Memphis made seven of its first nine three pointers and gained its largest lead of the game of 19 (41-22) at the 6:34 mark. However, the Blazers went on a 10-0 run and back-to-back 3-pointers from Zack Bryant forced Memphis into a timeout with 3:01 left in the opening half.

In all, both teams made eight 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes and the Blazers shot 52 percent from the floor, but trailed 49-39 at the break behind 61 percent shooting from the Tigers.

The two teams traded baskets to open the second half, but when Memphis increased its lead to 14 at the 12:16 mark, the Blazers used a 12-2 UAB run which was capped by a Tavin Lovan and-1 to bring the Blazers within four with a little over 10 minutes remaining, 63-59.

An evenly played four-minute span saw the score reach 74-67 with 6:16 remaining, but Memphis scored 11 of the next 14 points as its lead increased to 85-70 with less than three minutes to play, which proved to be too big of a gap for UAB to close.

The Blazers out-rebounded the Tigers 39-31, but Memphis turned 17 UAB turnovers into 26 points, and also received 37 points from its bench.

The Blazers return home to begin six straight games in Birmingham, starting next Saturday, December 15 against Auburn at the BJCC. The game at the BJCC is included in season ticket holders' packages, and general admission tickets can be purchased through TicketMaster.