The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
East Carolina
UAB Tops East Carolina, 58-42
1/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 27, 2007
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Wen Mukubu scored 15 points and Lawrence Kinnard added 14 to lift UAB past East Carolina 58-42 on Saturday. The Blazers had 16 assists on their 19 made baskets on the evening, en route to the 16-point win.
Mukubu added seven assists and five rebounds while Kinnard had seven rebounds for UAB (11-9, 3-3 Conference USA), which shot 75 percent (9 of 12) from the foul line.
"We have really worked on our shooting throughout the week, and I thought it showed tonight," UAB head coach Mike Davis said. "East Carolina is a tough team to beat when they are playing at home, but our guys really hung in there and played hard. I thought we made a lot of open shots and that is a definite sign of improvement. When we lost to Southern Miss last week, I counted 20 open shots that we just didn't make. Tonight we made them and got the result."
UAB led by as many as 18 points with 2:11 left in the game. East Carolina's largest lead was just one point with 18:13 left in the first half.
Courtney Captain scored 13 points and Darrell Jenkins had 10 points and eight assists for the Pirates (5-14, 0-6), who shot just 23.8 percent (5 of 21) from 3-point range.
With the game tied 7-all, UAB went on a 21-5 run to take a 16-point lead, 28-12, with 4:44 remaining before halftime. Included in the run was a 12-0 spurt by Blazers that included two 3s from Lawrence Kinnard and another from Mukubu.
Freshman Justin Ramsey ended the spurt with a turnaround jumper to give the Pirates their first points in over eight minutes.
The Pirates were held to their lowest scoring half in over two years and trailed by 14 at halftime, 30-16.
ECU mounted an early charge following intermission, outscoring the Blazers 12-4 to start the half capped by John Fields' second dunk of the night. The Pirates closed the gap to five, 37-32, on a Taylor Gagnon free throw with 11:56 remaining, but couldn't get any closer.
UAB quickly rebuilt its double digit advantage, outscoring ECU 14-3 over the next seven minutes to lead by 16 points with 4:30 left, 51-35.
Kinnard made two more 3s during that stretch and finished 4-of-8 from behind the arc.
The Blazers will next be in action when they take on SMU on Wednesday, Jan. 31, at 7 p.m. in Bartow Arena.
