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UAB Survives UCF, 75-68
Feb. 4, 2006
ORLANDO, Fla. - Brandon Tobias scored a career-high 14 points and Derrick Broom added 13, including three clutch second-half three-pointers to lead UAB to a 75-68 road win at UCF Saturday. The victory was UAB's 12th in 13 games and moved the red-hot Blazers to 16-4 overall and 6-1 in Conference USA play. Josh Peppers went for 19 points for UCF (9-10, 3-3 C-USA). Anthony Williams added 14 for the Golden Knights. UAB built an eight point lead in the first half at 23-15 with 11:21 to play before intermission. Troy Lindebeck, Peppers and Mike O'Connell reeled off a trio of three-pointers as the Golden Knights worked the score to a one-point UAB advantage at the break at 36-35. UCF's stiffling perimeter defense worked against UAB in the first half. The Blazers were held to 0-of-5 shooting from long range in the first period while the Golden Knights lit the nets for 8-of-13 shooting from downtown before the break. Broom reversed the trend with a trifecta to begin the second half scoring. UCF tied the contest at 42 each on a pair of Williams free-throws with 16:43 to play. After a jermaine Taylor three with 11:30 to go the score was 49-48 in favor of UAB. With UCF knocking on the door of their first lead since the opening minutes, Broom's second three added a cushion. His third long-range bomb with 7:04 to go made it a 10-point game at 62-52. UCF worked the lead down to four points with 1:27 left on another O'Connell three-pointer, but Squeaky Johnson and Marvett McDonald combined to hit 8-of-8 free throws down the stretch to seal the win. Lawrence Kinnard scored 12 points with five rebounds for the Blazers. McDonald added 10, but was held without a three-pointer for the first time this season. Johnson, recently announced as a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award for the nation's top point guard, scored eight points with eight assists and two steals. UAB shot 54 percent from the field (27-of-50) for the game and hit 17-of-25 free throws. After a 50-percent first half, UCF cooled off to just 10-of-31 (32.3 percent) after the break. The Blazers forced 18 UCF turnovers to offset a 36-27 rebounding advantage for their hosts. UAB next travels to UTEP on Wednesday, Feb. 8 for a 9 p.m. CT/8 p.m. MT, nationally-televised contest on CSTV against the Miners.
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