UAB Outlasts the Trojans 87-66

Saturday, November 15

Troy, Ala.

2 p.m.

Troy University

UAB

11/15/2008 6:00:00 AM | Basketball (M)

TROY ? Despite trailing by just two points at halftime, the Troy Trojans were outscored 51-32 in the second half and fell to the UAB Blazers 87-66 in the season opener for both teams on Saturday afternoon at Trojan Arena.

Troy hit 27.8 percent (5-of-18) in the first half compared to just one of their 16 attempts in the second half. For the game Troy hit 7-of-27 for a 25.9 percent clip.

An enthusiastic crowd packed into Trojan Arena, with a large number of both Troy and UAB fans filling the stands. The game was the first ever match-up between the in-state rivals.

“It was a nip-tuck game in the first half. It seemed like February it was a good atmosphere it felt like college basketball should feel like. In the second half they shot better, and we shot worse. I thought our offensive execution was good but we needed to shoot the ball better. It was a great start against a talented team. Our offense worked better tonight than it did anytime last year,” Head coach Don Maestri said.

The Trojans (0-1) jumped out to an early 7-2 lead, but UAB (1-0) came back behind a pair of free throws from Aaron Johnson and a pair of three pointers by Paul Delaney III and Lawrence Kinnard.

The Trojans took back the lead with just less than nine minutes to go behind three-pointers from Kenny Ware and Travis Lee. Lee then found Antywan Jones for an alley-oop lay-up pushing the lead out to 18-14 with 8:36 remaining.

UAB's Delaney knocked down two free throws, but Lee nailed another three that was followed by two more for the Blazers. That was followed by an Ed Berrios three pointer at the six minute mark to put UAB up by two, 23-21.

Ware hit a pair of free throws and Chris Leggett cleaned up an offensive rebound with a put back, but on the following possession Regis Huddleston was stripped leading to an easy Blazer lay-in by Terrence Roderick giving UAB a four point advantage 29-25.

Leggett led Troy offensively with 12 points and four rebounds. Lee added nine points, all on three pointers, to go with five rebounds and two steals. Mario Telfair also posted nine points with four rebounds.

“Leggett really played well. He has a feel for the basketball whenever the lights come on,” Maestri said.

Coming out of the half trailing by two Hazzard connected on a long jumper with his foot on the line to tie things at 36, but Delaney followed up with an acrobatic reverse lay-up to give the Blazers the edge again, 38-36.

Two free throws by Channing Toney gave UAB their largest lead of the game at that point with 15 minutes to go in the second half leading by nine at 49-40.

The Blazers continued their hot shooting with back-to-back three-pointers from Kinnard pushing the lead to 57-43, but the Trojans answered back with a Huddleston three-pointer.

A Kinnard dunk off a feed from Robert Vaden capped a 37-17 point run for the Blazers pushing their lead out to 22 with 7:48 remaining.

Vaden, the Conference USA Preseason Player of the Year, was held to just four points on 2-of-13 shooting. Kinnard led the Blazers with 22 points and 13 rebounds. Delaney added a team-high 24 points.

Tom Jervis picked up his first bucket of the game with 6:01 left on the clock in the second half cutting the Blazer lead to 73-55. Jervis finished the game with four points and a team-high nine rebounds.

“Tom played well and he gave us some valuable minutes. He led the team in rebounding and I don't think he did that a single time last year. It was good to see him get out and be aggressive,” Maestri said.

Delaney picked up a lay-up with under 30 seconds remaining for the final 21 point deficit of 87-66.

The Trojans are in action next on Monday when they travel to face UNC-Wilmington at 6 PM central time.