Cokley’s Big Night Spurs Blazers’ Win

Thursday, February 1

Charlotte, N.C.

6:00 PM

UAB

-158, 64 CUSA

Charlotte

-515, 18 CUSA

UAB

Charlotte

Cokley’s Big Night Spurs Blazers’ Win

2/1/2018 9:11:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Another night of Conference USA play, another near flawless performance by senior Chris Cokley. This one led to an important 76-64 C-USA road victory over Charlotte on Thursday night at Halton Arena.

How impressive was Cokley? So much so that the reemergence of Deion Lavender, a spirited defensive effort by William Lee and better 3-point shooting defense in the second half were almost afterthoughts when compared to Cokley's performance.

"Chris has continued his unbelievable play," said UAB head coach Robert Ehsan. "As a coach and sometimes even as a fan, you take for granted what he's doing."
What he did on Thursday was score 26 points, hit 10 of 12 shots from the field and grab 12 rebounds in 30 minutes. And he did this while battling through some back pain.

He also had some help from his frontcourt teammates. Lee, who had three blocked shots and altered many more, and Sullivan combined for 21 points and combined with Cokley to make 22 of 30 shots from the field.

"We know our strength is, obviously, on the inside and especially, we thought, today," Ehsan said.

It wasn't a particularly good offensive night for the UAB guards but Lavender came off the bench to play his best game of the season. The 6-foot-4 junior had a season-high 11 points, hitting 4-of-5 shots from the field and 3-of-4 from the free throw line, four rebounds and four assists in 22 minutes.

"Deion had really good practices," Ehsan said. "I thought he earned it this week with his play in practice and he had a great attitude. We knew that we were going to give him an opportunity, more than we had in the past. He really did a great job of capitalizing. If he can do that for us off the bench, which I think he's capable of, I think it's going to make our team even better."

On Thursday, the Blazers (15-8 overall, 6-4 C-USA) struggled defensively in the first half, particularly in stopping the 3-pointer. Charlotte, which led 9-2 in the opening minutes, made six of their first nine 3-point attempts, including a stretch where they hit a 3-pointer on three straight possessions.

UAB countered by pounding the ball inside, doing most of the damage in the paint, but couldn't pull away. The teams were tied at 40 at halftime.

In the second half, UAB limited the open 3-point looks.

"We tried to send three guys back in transition, that was a big part of it, to try and not let them get transition 3s," Ehsan said. "We said, let's make Murphy make him (dribble), so when he catches it, you have to be all over him to make him (dribble). Then, we just talking about pushing up onto your man."

The strategy worked. Charlotte (5-15 overall, 1-8 C-USA) was 6-of-11 on 3-pointers and the 49ers made just 3-of-18 in the second half.

It still took awhile for the Blazers to take full advantage. UAB slowly built a cushion midway through the second half. The Blazers held Charlotte without a field goal for more than seven minutes in the second half and were able to turn a 57-55 lead at the 9:30 mark into a 68-58 advantage with 2:10 remaining. Most of the damage during that time was done in the paint and at the free throw line but Lee's 3-point dagger gave UAB a 66-56 lead with 2:37 remaining.

The Blazers made 8-of-10 free throws in the final 1:29 to improve to 3-2 in C-USA road games.

"It was good to pull that in what was kind of a herky-jerky, sloppy game," Ehsan said. "They got off to a really good start, but we were calm, we were patient, we stuck to the game plan. I thought we really executed when we needed to, down the stretch against the zone."