The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Memphis
Blazers Drop Regular Season Finale At No. 2/3 Memphis
3/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 8, 2008
Final Stats
| CSTV Highlights 
MEMPHIS, Tenn. ---- After an epic battle in Birmingham three weeks earlier -- a thriller that ended in a 79-78 victory for then top-ranked Memphis -- the UAB basketball team was hoping for a repeat performance Saturday, only with a different outcome.
Unfortunately, for the Blazers, the contest at the FedEx Forum featured the Tigers at their finest and the result was a convincing 94-56 Memphis victory.
The Tigers, who secured their 30th win for the third consecutive season and an unblemished mark in the Conference USA play, jumped out of the gates as they built a 10-0 lead. UAB answered back to trim the margin to 12-9. From there, though, it was mostly all Tigers the rest of the way as head coach John Calipari's club built a 48-20 halftime lead and never looked back.
"We had no answer for them," Blazers coach Mike Davis said.
Lawrence Kinnard led UAB (22-9, 12-4) with 16 points, while Robert Vaden had 13, nine under his average. Vaden was 5-of-17 from the field and just 3-of-13 from three-point range. Vaden's three treys broke the C-USA single-season record for three-point field goals as he now has 138 this season, one better than the mark set by Charlotte's Demon Brown in the 2002-03 season.
The win was Memphis' 39th straight in C-USA play, and the Tigers enter next week's conference tournament as the top seed as well as its host. Despite the loss, UAB will be the No. 2 seed and has a first round bye in the league tournament that starts Wednesday in Memphis. The Blazers will play their first tournament game Thursday at Noon.
The Blazers were their own worst enemy Saturday as they ended the day with 23 turnovers, 18 in the first half, and shot 34 percent. The Tigers converted those turnovers into 31 points. The Tigers committed just 10 turnovers.
Memphis earned a 45-32 advantage on the boards and had 22 second-chance points to UAB's three.
"That's what a deep team will do. The biggest thing is we just guarded," Calipari said.
Memphis' Joey Dorsey, playing his final regular season game at home on the Tigers' Senior Day, finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
