Blazers Suffer Home Loss to North Texas

Thursday, February 8

Bartow Arena

7:00 PM

UAB

15-10, 6-6

North Texas

14-10, 7-4

North Texas

UAB

Blazers Suffer Home Loss to North Texas

2/8/2018 10:09:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Early offensive woes that took frustrating to a mind-numbing level was eventually too much to overcome for the UAB men's basketball team in a 67-60 Conference USA loss to North Texas on Thursday night at Bartow Arena.

"We did not play well enough, obviously, to be successful," said UAB head coach Robert Ehsan. "Shooting the basketball was a real struggle for us. I thought we had a couple of good days of preparation, the guys were excited to play. We really could not make a shot that first couple of minutes, which I thought deflated our guys a little bit. We caused us a deficit that we couldn't crawl out of."

UAB (15-10 overall, 6-6 C-USA) missed its first 10 shots, with eight of those coming outside the 3-point stripe, against a packed in North Texas zone. It took the Blazers seven minutes and 27 seconds to score with the first basket coming when Lewis Sullivan followed up a UAB miss. By that time, North Texas (14-10 overall, 7-4 C-USA) had already scored 12 points.

Deion Lavender gave UAB back-to-back baskets when he drove the baseline for a layup. Unfortunately for the Blazers, that didn't get them out of their offensive funk.

"We tried to go inside, they double teamed, triple teamed Chris (Cokley)," Ehsan said. "They really packed it in the paint, which made it difficult for us to get the ball inside."

By halftime, the Blazers had just seven field goals. They were also 2-of-15 on 3-pointers at that point, with both successful 3-pointers by Nick Norton.

"I kept telling the guys to shoot the ball with confidence," Ehsan said. "We shot the ball 60 percent from 3-point range in practice on Tuesday. It was unfortunate, in this building, we just have not shot the ball well."

North Texas, on the other hand, hit 56 percent from the field, built a lead that stretched to as many as 17 points and led 33-21 at halftime.

UAB played better, at times, in the second half. The Blazers trailed by as many as 18 points in the second half, but had the lead trimmed to 10 points a couple of times. Both times, North Texas reserve DJ Draper hit a 3-pointer to get the Mean Green back on track.

The Blazers finally got the lead under double digits when Cokley and Nate Darling combined on a 6-0 run. Darling hit back-to-back jumpers, the second one coming with 3:25 left, to cut the North Texas lead to 61-52. After a North Texas offensive foul, William Lee tipped in a missed shot to make the score 61-54 with 2:46 left.

What was the difference at that point?

"Nate makes two outside jump shots, HaHa gets a couple of offensive rebounds," Ehsan said. "Honestly, we just made some shots."

Ehsan chose to have his team foul in the final 1:30 to extend the game. North Texas hit 7-of-11 free throws during that span, which left the door open a little for the Blazers. UAB had the lead trimmed to six points twice and trailed 63-58 after a pair of Zack Bryant free throws with 40.5 seconds left.

But the early offensive problems were ultimately too much to overcome.

Lee had a solid overall game, finishing with 11 points, 13 rebounds, four blocked shots, two steals and an assist. Cokley and Bryant each had 12 points but Bryant had six of the team's 14 turnovers. Jalen Perry had 11 points.

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