After Monday night's loss at Bartow Arena, the Blazers' record home win streak comes to an end. Photo from uabsports.comJack Ryan - Staff Writerjackryan@uab.edu
The UAB men's basketball team suffered its first loss at home since 2014 on Monday, Nov. 14 after falling 84-74 to the Furman Paladins.
UAB had the fifth longest home court win streak in the nation going into the game. The loss also dropped UAB to a 1-1 record for the season.
In the first half, UAB and Furman both played a statistically similar game. At the half, UAB was up 46-45, thanks to a late 3-pointer from Dirk Williams. The Blazers were shooting with 58.6 percent from the field and 75 percent from 3-point range, while Furman was shooting 57.1 percent from the field and 69.2 percent from 3-point range.
After halftime, however, UAB simply could not hit many shots. In the second half, UAB shot 16.7 percent from the field and 9.1 percent from 3-point range. On the other side, Furman went 50 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from the three. By the end of the game, Furman wound up hitting 15 3-pointers. According to archives from UAB Athletics, this was the greatest number of 3-pointers hit against UAB in a single game.
"Offensively, we struggled for the second half and ended up breaking our back. They spread us out a little bit and their guards played excellent," said Head Coach Rob Ehsan. "They beat us off the dribble and we went for the shot fakes. I don't care who it is, if you shoot 63 percent from three and hit 15 you are going to be hard to beat."
During the game, a total of 50 fouls were called. High-foul games has been a trend since last year, when the NCAA mandated officials crack down on physical play in basketball.
One statistic to look at as a result of this ruling is fast-break points. Both teams only had two fast-break points. UAB has been trying out a new press defense that Ehsan said he wants to work in.
The press defense is supposed to help lead to turnovers and fast break points. However in this game, because of the numerous fouls, neither team was able to get out and run in transition much. The pace of the game hurt UAB, and lead to easier shots for Furman.
"We pressed two possessions and almost had the steal, instead they wound up with three point buckets," Ehsan said of the second half. "There were so many fouls called, it was hard for us to get a rhythm offensively."
Late in the game, UAB didn't take the time to set up an offense, oftentimes settling for quick shots.
"We stopped trusting each other and [started] taking quick shots. We just did not get it done," said senior guard Hakeem Baxter.
Monday night's game was also the first game without starting point guard Nick Norton. Norton went down Friday night with a torn ACL, and is expected to be out for the rest of the season.
Although Norton's injury was difficult for the team, Ehsan contends that this was not a factor in the loss.
"We are going to have to make some adjustments and new roles for some guys. We played a few line ups we haven't played before," Ehsan said. "This is the first time Deion [Lavender] has played point guard in his life. He played 33 minutes and that was probably too long. We are going to have to play the bench more. We are going to have to figure ourselves out at that position. Nick is a great player, but he will not be with us this season so we are going to have to find a way around that."
The Blazers play again on Thursday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. against the Troy Trojans at Bartow Arena.
