The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Men's Basketball Remains on Road to Play Saint Louis
2/18/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 18, 2002
UAB BASKETBALL NOTES
Game 26 February 19, 2002, 7:10 p.m. CST UAB (11-14, 4-8) vs. Saint Louis (11-15, 5-7) Savvis Center / Saint Louis, Missouri
RADIO Blazer Sports Radio Network WAPI-AM 1070 in Birmingham Garry Sanders, Play by Play Matt Coulter, Color Analyst John Gentile, Producer/Host
TELEVISION None
SERIES UAB leads 14-6
LAST MEETING Saint Louis 73, UAB 48 March 3, 2001 Bartow Arena, Birmingham, Ala.
OFFICIALS John Clougherty, Bob Donato, Kerry Sitton
NEXT UAB GAME Feb. 23 South Florida, 1 p.m. Bartow Arena, Birmingham, Ala. C-USA TV (WABM TV 68), ESPN Plus
UAB BLAZERS UAB is 11-15 overall and 4-8 in C-USA. The Blazers are in fifth place in the National Division. The Blazers have lost two straight, to Tulane 83-72 and TCU, 78-68, after beating Memphis 64-46.
Mo Finley has averaged 17.3 points the last three games and shares the team lead in scoring with Will Campbell and P.J. Arnold. All three are averaging 12.4 points per game. Campbell leads the team in rebounding with 8.8 per game and has seven double-doubles this season. Finley and Arnold are both in the top eight in C-USA in 3-pointers made. Point guard Eric Bush is second in the league in steals with 2.1 per game and sixth in assists with 5.1 a game.
Antonae Roberson has provided a scoring spark of the bench the last few games. He has scored 20 points in each of the last two game and has averaged 14.3 points over the last four contests.
Head Coach Murry Bartow is in his sixth season as a collegiate head coach with a record of 101-80 (.558). He won his 100th game in the first TCU meeting. Bartow has led UAB to the fourth most Division I wins in C-USA in the period he has been the Blazers head coach. He has taken UAB to three post-season appearances, including an NCAA appearance in 1999. SAINT LOUIS The Billikens are 11-15 overall and 5-7 in fourth place in the American Division. They lost to Georgia Tech 60-40 at home in a non-conference contest this past Saturday. They earlier lost to Cincinnati 67-53 after beating Charlotte 73-54 in St. Louis.
Saint Louis is one of the league leaders in defense, giving up just 64.2 points per game. They are scoring just 63.8 points.
Guard Marque Perry is the only Billiken averaging in double-figures He is scoring 14.4 points per game. Guard Jason Edwin is scoring 9.7 points per game, second on the team. Forward Kenny Brown leads the team in rebounding, averaging 6.3 per game. He is scoring 7.5 points a contest.
Saint Louis has nine different players who have played in at least 22 games and all nine have started at least one game.
Head coach Lorenzo Romar is 47-43 in his third year at Saint Louis. The former Pepperdine head coach is 89-87 overall. Romar is a former assistant coach to Jim Harrick at UCLA.
Saint Louis hosts Louisville on ESPN, Friday night at 8 p.m. CST.
LAST TIME OUT - Tulane 83, UAB 72 Tulane shot 65 percent from the field in the second half and finished the game shooting 53 percent for the win. The Green Wave had six players score in double figures with Brandon Spann leading the way with 16 points. Trailing 36-34 at the half, UAB scored the first five points of the second half to take a 39-36 lead. Tulane then scored 12 straight points to take a 49-39 lead. They extended the run to 18-1 and led 54-40 with 13:40 remaining in the game. UAB scored six in a row to cut the margin to seven points at 54-47, but go not closer the rest of the way. Antonae Roberson came off the bench to score 20 points for the second straight game. He was 9-of-16 from the field. UAB did have one of its better shooting games, making 47.2 percent from the field. The Blazers stayed close in the first half by making 6-of-8 from 3-point range. Mo Finley made 4-of-6 from behind the arc and finished the game with 18 points. UAB center Will Campbell, who had four double-doubles in the previous six games, was bothered by an ankle injury and scored just six points and had four rebounds.
THE SAINT LOUIS SERIES UAB leads the series 14-6. Saint Louis has won the last two meetings, winning 73-48 last year in Birmingham and 78-61 two years ago in Saint Louis. The Billikens lead 5-4 in St. Louis and UAB leads 9-1 in Birmingham. The Blazers won the only meeting on a neutral court 76-74 in the 1998 C-USA Tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio. The first meeting was in 1978 with UAB winning 73-70 in Birmingham. MURRY BARTOW VS. SAINT LOUIS Murry Bartow is 3-3 against the Billikens. He is 0-2 against current Saint Louis head coach Lorenzo Romar. Bartow was 3-1 against former head coach Charlie Spoonhour and defeated Spoonhour's current team UNLV earlier this season.
BACK ON THE ROAD UAB is 2-9 away from Bartow Arena and 1-8 on the opposition's home court. The Blazers defeated TCU 77-71 in Fort Worth, Texas, earlier this season. UAB was 1-2 in the Paradise Jam Tournament in Saint Thomas of the Virgin Islands.
CAMPBELL DOMINATING Center Will Campbell is the only Blazer to start every game this season, despite being bothered by an ankle injury in the last game against Tulane. He has proven, at times, to be one of the more dominating players in the league. He has four double-doubles in the last seven games. He had 14 points and 14 rebounds in the win over Memphis. He had five straight double-figure rebounding games before getting just nine against TCU. Campbell had a career-high 30 points in the first TCU game to go along with 19 rebounds. That game was the third in a stretch of three straight games with 20 or more points and 10 or more rebounds. He scored 27 points and had 11 rebounds in the first Tulane game and had 20 points and 15 rebounds in the first Memphis meeting. He is eighth in the league in rebounding, averaging 8.8 per game. Campbell has 473 rebounds for his career, needing to average 6.8 rebounds over the last five regular season games to reach 500 for his career. Last year he was named the C-USA Player of the Week (Feb. 4, 2001) and posted a school-record tying 20 rebounds against Houston (Jan. 31, 2001), marking only the seventh time in league history that a player has notched at least that many in a contest.
ROBERSON BREAKING OUT ON THE OFFENSE Junior forward Antonae Roberson has provided an offensive spark the last few games for the Blazers. He has led the team in scoring in each of the last two games, scoring 20 points in each game. He also was the only Blazer in double figures against South Florida scoring 17 points. Roberson has made 61 percent from the field in the last four games and is shooting 53 percent from the field for the year. There is a drawback on Roberson's recent scoring streak. The Blazers' are 0-3 in those games. They defeated Memphis in the only game he did not score in the last four contests.
