Jags Fall To UAB 92-78 On Saturday
The Jaguar men’s basketball team started off the game slow again against UAB in Birmingham on Saturday. The Blazers jumped out to a 16-4 lead to open the game in route to defeating the Jaguars 92-78 at Bartow Arena.
This win put the Blazer even for the season at 5-5 while the Jags drop to 4-5 on the season. The Jags continue to struggle in Bartow arena. They have lost the last nine games there and hold an all-time record of 2-19 in Birmingham. The Jags have not won at UAB since 1988.
The Blazers shot 57.1% from the floor and 52.9% from three-point range for the game. While the Jags struggled again by missing all 12 attempts from 3-point range and missing their first 14 attempts for the game.
“We didn’t play defense, there wasn’t much effort, we had poor shot selection and didn’t share the ball until late in the game,” Jaguar head coach Ronnie Arrow said. “We’re not going to win games until our guys start taking a personal interest in their defense. It starts with them. There’s not enough discipline on offense and way too much not-knowing-what’s-going-on on defense.”
UAB made 11 of their first 14 shots of the game and lead 25-13 with 11:15 left in the first half. The Blazers would take a 46-27 lead into halftime.
The Blazers would lead by as much as 28 points in the second half.
“They were working hard and we were standing around,” Arrow said. “We have basic things that we do that we didn’t do tonight until we decided to start getting some points and sharing the ball. We’re going to look at this long and hard and we’re going to play the guys that share the ball and want to work.”
The Jags would hit their stride late in the game and went on a 14-3 run, capped off with a three-pointer from Mychal Ammons, to close the Blazer lead to 90-78 with 1:25 left in the game. The Blazers would get an offensive rebound on its next possession and hit two free throws for the final points of the game.
Augustine Rubit earned his fourth double-double of the season with 24 points and 11 rebounds, 16 of his points coming after halftime. Xavier Roberson added 18 points, 13 of his in the second half as well. Freddie Goldstein chipped in 13 points coming off the bench.
South Alabama show just 30.3% from the floor in the first half, but would come out of the halftime locker room and shot 54.8% and 46.7% from three-point range. The Blazers would shoot 51.3% in the first half and would improve on that by shooting 66.7% in the second half.
UAB had five players in double-digits lead by Fahro Alihodzic with 17 points.
South Alabama will open a three-game home stand beginning on December 16 when they host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:05pm at the Mitchell Center.