The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Set To Face TCU In Regular Season Finale
3/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 5, 2004
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- The UAB men's basketball team will close out the 2003-04 regular season when it plays host to the TCU Horned Frogs on Saturday at Noon in Bartow Arena. The Blazers will honor five seniors prior to the game as Mo Finley, Sidney Ball, Gabe Kennedy, Tony Johnson and Lee Cobb will play their final home game.
While it may not have been the league's highest touted match-up last season, UAB and TCU arguably had the most entertaining games for the year. On Jan. 29, 2003, the Blazers captured an 84-82 overtime win on the back of Gabe Kennedy's career-high 23 points. Demario Eddins added 22 points for the cause. On Feb. 18, UAB snuck out an 88-85 overtime victory. The 173 points were the most points scored in the series' history.
Most recently, UAB (18-8, 11-4 C-USA) won its second consecutive game, taking a 61-59 at USF last Wednesday night. UAB is led by senior guard Mo Finley who has team highs of 13.0 ppg, 50 threes made and 150 threes attempted. Gabe Kennedy averages a team-high 5.5 boards per contest, while also contributing 11.7 ppg - the second best on the team. Carldell "Squeaky" Johnson has team-highs of 4.0 assists and 2.2 steals per game - ranked 43rd in the country and second in C-USA.
TCU (11-15, 7-8) enters Saturday's contest having dropped three of its last four, including an 83-56 loss at Memphis on Wednesday. The Horned Frogs are led by Corey Santee's 14.5 points and 4.6 assists per game. Sophomore Chudi Chinweze averages a team-high 5.0 rebounds a game and 10.9 ppg, while junior transfer Marcus Shropshire adds 13.3 ppg.
With a victory, UAB will go undefeated in Conference USA at home for the first time in school history. The Blazers can also clinch a first round bye in the upcoming Conference USA Tournament with a victory.
The game will be televised on ESPN Plus with Lou Canellis (play-by-play) and Charles Davis (color analyst) calling the game. The game can also be heard locally on WYDE 101.1 FM with the pregame show beginning at 11:30 a.m. CST., or can be followed on Gametracker by accessing www.uabsports.com.
