The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
UCF
Women's Basketball Edged By UCF, 74-67
1/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 10, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - UCF scored 50 points in the second half to edge the UAB women's basketball team, 74-67, Saturday evening at Bartow Arena. Chelsie Wiley led four Knights in double figures with 21 points on the night. Senior Britney Jones and sophomore Amanda Peterson tallied 23 and 21 points, respectively, for the Blazers.
UAB fell to 6-10 overall and 1-2 in Conference USA play. The Knights maintained their unblemished league record by moving to 3-0 in C-USA and 5-11 overall.
UAB and UCF came out and played in a 2-2 tie for the first six-plus minutes of the game, courtesy of solid defense on both ends. The Knights went up by five, but UAB responded with a 14-3 run that gave the Blazers a six-point lead at the 8:01 mark, 20-14.
The Knights made a run of their own to tie the game at 24-all with 1:56 remaining before the half. Peterson sank a jumper with 29 seconds left on the clock to give UAB a two-point advantage at halftime, 26-24.
UAB came out in the second half and quickly took a five-point lead, 32-27, at the 18:17 mark. UCF outscored UAB, 7-2, over the next four minutes to tie the game at 34-34 with 13:37 left in the game.
The Knights took their first double-digit lead at the 4:24 mark, 57-47, on a free throw by Wiley. UCF went up by as much as 13 before the Blazers began to chip away and the Knights' lead.
Down by 10 with less than three minutes left in the game, UAB put four three-pointers through the net in less than a two-minute span to cut UCF's lead to three, 70-67, with 29 seconds remaining in the contest. The Knights went 4-of-6 from the free throw line down the stretch to hold on for the seven-point win, 74-67.
"UCF is a good team and much better than its overall record," said UAB head coach Audra Smith. "We had the advantage at halftime, but UCF came out in the second half and we had a hard time stopping them from scoring.
"We gave up too many offensive rebounds and UCF was getting second-chance points on us. We need to improve on boxing out and eliminating the offensive boards and second-chance points."
UAB shot 42.6 percent overall, including 46.9 percent in the second half. The Blazers knocked down 42.9 percent from beyond the arc (6-of-14) and 69.2 percent (9-of-13) from the free throw line.
Jones scored 16 of her 23 points in the second half for the Blazers. Jones also added team-best numbers with eight rebounds, four assists and three steals against UCF.
Peterson had the second-highest point total of her career with 21 points, including 16 in the first half. Peterson went 9-of-16 from the field, including 2-of-4 from three-point range. Peterson, along with junior forward/center Amanda Scott, recorded a team-high two blocks apiece.
Junior forward Tamika Dukes was the third Blazers to score in double figures with 10 points, accompanied by eight rebounds.
UCF shot a game-high 56.7 percent in the second half and 43.3 percent for the game. The Knights also went 4-of-8 (50.0 percent) from beyond the arc and 18-of-31 (58.1 percent) from the charity stripe.
Wiley was 6-of-13 from the field, including 3-of 5 from three-point range and 6-of-8 from the free throw line for her team-best 21 points for UCF.
Emma Cannon added 14 points and six rebounds for the Knights, while Aisha Patrick scored 13 points and Marshay White tallied 12 points on the night.
UAB will be back in action on Friday when it travels to Houston, Texas to take on the Houston Cougars at 7 p.m. CT at the Hofheinz Pavilion.
