Hakeem Baxter dunks on Auburn. Photo by Ian KeelUAB struggled with referee trouble, resulting in a 74-70 loss against in-state rival Auburn Jack Ryan - Staff Writer
jackryan@uab.edu
In front of a sold-out crowd of 8,728 people, the UAB men’s basketball team fell to Auburn on Saturday, Dec. 3 by a score of 74-70.
This was the second of a four game series to be played by these two teams, which began with the season opener last year.
“It’s been since 1998 since Auburn played in Birmingham. That’s just too long for us to be down there and not come up here,” said Auburn Head Coach Bruce Pearl after the game.
Auburn found themselves victorious in the first two games, continuing to spur the renewed in-state rivalry. Last year, it was a one-point game as UAB’s Chris Cokley went up for the final shot, only for it to be blocked, sealing Auburn’s 75-74 victory.
Saturday’s game saw Cokley, like the majority of UAB’s starting five, finding himself in foul trouble almost instantly in the first half. Even though Cokely, William Lee and Deion Lavender only played about six to eight minutes a piece in the first half, UAB took a four point lead to the locker room at halftime.
Coming out of the half, the Blazers had a stagnant offense for a few minutes, leading to an Auburn run that put the Tigers up 11 points with about six minutes left in the game.
“We got off to a good start and then got into a lull in the second half. They hit a couple of rhythm threes. [Danjel] Purifoy especially, I don’t know that he had hit a three in the first half, but he had four in the second half,” Head Coach Rob Ehsan said. “That was the outcome of the game. We tried to fight back. We had four starters with two fouls in the first half. This team is different. We have to continue to grow and develop as a team.”
As this team moves forward, Ehsan expects to continue adjusting line-ups. With the foul trouble on their starters, Ehsan said he used a line up Saturday that he had never practiced together. That line up consisted of Tyler Madison, Tosin Mehinti and William Lee.
“We were playing the three bigs. Tyler’s been playing the four and I had to play him in the three. Lee had to play at the three some,” Ehsan said. “They were just choppy. As a team, we are just trying to find this rotation. I think we take it for granted how seamlessly last year, you came out and knew what to expect from every guy pretty much every night.”
The game started with momentum swinging UAB’s way, courtesy of Madison’s steal and dunk and some early, quick offense. According to Ehsan, the team “fed off the crowd’s energy early.”
After the team settled in, the lead stayed in UAB’s favor for most of the first half. Toward the end of the first half, UAB had to transition into a 2-3 zone because of the early foul troubles.
“They [UAB] were playing zone early and man late and we hadn’t seen that. That bothered us in the first half. In the second half, we ran some stuff to beat the man and zone,” Pearl said.
As the game went on, UAB and Auburn both wound up in foul trouble, to the point where both teams were having to be separated by officials or warned for talking to each other.
At the end of the first half, one official was in Madison’s face as he went to the locker room, and Ehsan had to come get between them to make sure Madison stayed out of trouble.
“There was a lot of talking, probably too much for a game,” Pearl said.
In the second half, UAB hit a lull on the offensive side, and Auburn picked up their defense: a couple of quick steals from Auburn freshman guard Jared Harper led to fast threes by Auburn freshman forward Danjel Purifoy.
Cokley committed his fourth foul with eight minutes left in the game and then appeared to say something when the official gave him a technical foul, putting him at five and forcing him out of the game.
“I am not sure what happened,” Madison said. “But Chris is one of our top scorers. He is a presence inside that everyone has to guard. Him going out hurt our team.”
UAB began to close the gap late in the second half, getting the Auburn lead down to three, but a couple of missed 3-pointers and free throws left too many points on the floor for the Blazers to catch up.
“We were right there. Just a few stops and free throws away from winning the game. We just came out flat at half time and it cost us the game,” senior guard Denzel Watts said. “Some days we knock threes down all over the day and today we just could not buy one of them.”
Some UAB fans attributed the loss to another factor: the fact that the sold-out Bartow Arena contained a visibly large number of fans adorned in orange and blue.
“Here’s what lost the game from the start: [The] crowd [was] 60 percent UAB, 40 percent Auburn. That’s where my disappointment stems,” UAB Bands Director Jess Taylor said.
Multiple times after the game, Ehsan thanked students for the large turnout and for filling up the student section, noting that he hopes future home games will see the same level of enthusiasm and participation.
UAB will hit the road twice this week. The team will travel to Nacogdoches, Texas to face Stephen F. Austin, who currently hold the third longest homecourt win streak in the NCAA, on Wednesday, Dec. 7. On Saturday, Dec. 10, the Blazers will face old conference rival Memphis.
UAB will return home on Dec. 18 to face Southern University.
