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Memphis spoils senior night

Posted on Mar 08, 2010 in Sports

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On a night where the halftime trivia question praised the Blazers’ consistent three-point shooting over the years, it was Memphis (22-8, 12-3) who shot the lights out, en route to a 70-65 victory over UAB (23-6, 11-4).

On the other side, UAB could not buy a shot from the perimeter as they went a horrendous 3-24 (12.5%) from beyond the arc and went 21-65 (32.3%) from the field.

UAB’s miscues early and often did not help the efforts, as the Blazers put themselves in a hole from the start.

Both teams opened the game fueling the emotional rivalry with very physical play as bodies constantly hit the floor.

Turnovers populated the stat sheet as a result of the teams’ sloppy play in the opening four minutes. As the first half passed, however, the Tigers would shake off their slow play while UAB still appeared a bit sluggish.

This was not hard to miss as UAB was forced to take inopportune shots leading to quick counter break-away points on the Memphis end. A fast-break dunk by Memphis’ Doneal Mack extended the Tigers’ lead to its largest of the first half at 33-25.

Memphis could not put the game out of reach, however, as they missed open looks near and beyond the perimeter late in the half.

As the trend would be throughout the game, UAB could not capitalize as the Blazers missed an uncontested three-pointer at the end of the half to potentially cut the Tigers’ lead to four points.

The missed shot capped off a 1-13 performance from beyond the arc for the Blazers in the first half. Memphis held strong defensively holding UAB to 29 first-half points and took a seven point lead to the locker room.

The second-half would start much the same way as the Memphis defense was stout, forcing UAB to drain the shot clock with almost every possession.

Nothing seemed to work for the Blazers as even Aaron Johnson’s trademark wonder layups would not fall, and Memphis took advantage extending the lead to 14 as UAB made a persistent comeback effort.

Jamarr Sanders (8 points, 11 rebounds) hit two three-pointers to send Bartow Arena into a frenzy. However, as quickly as those shots would fall, the Tigers had an answer.

The Blazers kept fighting, cutting the Memphis lead to 3 after an Elijah Millsap tip-in; however, Memphis would stay true at the free-throw line late in the game. The game fittingly ended with a missed open three-pointer to give Memphis their ninth consecutive victory over the Blazers.

Millsap led the Blazers with 19 points and 9 rebounds, while Howard Crawford and Aaron Johnson both reached double-digit point totals with 15 points and 12 points respectively.

Mack had one of his best performances of the season for the Tigers tallying 18 points, which included four successful 3-point shots.

The loss to Memphis also meant a defeat in the final home game for UAB’s three seniors: Kenneth Cooper, Howard Crawford and George Drake.

The loss also greatly diminished the Blazers’ chances of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, meaning UAB must now make an impressive run in the Conference-USA Tournament.

Wednesday’s results gave Memphis the 2-seed and UAB the 3-seed in the tournament, meaning in order for the Blazers to make the conference championship game, they must go through Memphis in the semifinals.
 

Email: tabdalla@uab.edu