The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Tulane
UAB Rolls Over Tulane, 76-55
2/27/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 27, 2010
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Elijah Millsap scored 20 points as UAB routed Tulane 76-55 on Saturday. Howard Crawford added 14 points, while Aaron Johnson tied his career high with 10 assists to lead the Blazers to their fourth-straight win.
"I was nervous about this game," UAB head coach Mike Davis. "We played really good in the first half, but we didn't come out that way in the second half. I thought the first 3-4 minutes of the second were not good, but we came back after that and played pretty well the rest of the game."
Freshmen Dexter Fields and Ovie Soko each had a solid game for the Blazers. Fields collected 10 points off the bench, while Soko had seven points, six rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals.
UAB has now held three of its past four opponents to 55 points or less. The Blazers held Tulane to just 34.0 percent (17-of-50) shooting from the the field and 26.7 percent (4-of-15) from three-point range. In comparison, the Blazers were 25-of-45 (55.6 percent) from the floor and 5-of-13 (38.5 percent) from three-point range.
Millsap made 8-of-12 field goal attempts to lead a strong shooting attack for the Blazers. Johnson added seven points and two steals with his 10 helpers. He became the eighth player in school history to reach the 400-assist plateau (401) in his career.
"Aaron Johnson is probably the most valuable player in this conference," Tulane head coach Dave Dickerson said. "He has good rhythm and a great personality. You can tell he's the heart and soul of that program.
"They played like a team that had a purpose. They played with NCAA swagger and Mike (Davis) has done an unbelievable job."
The Blazers bolted to a 41-21 halftime lead and were never threatened in the second half. They built their largest lead of the game at 28 points, 61-33, with 10:09 remaining.
UAB outscored the Green Wave 23-13 on points off turnovers. Additionally, the Blazers' reserves played a combined 70 minutes and outscored their counterparts, 21-12.
Kendall Timmons scored 13 points and Kevin Sims added 12 for Tulane (7-20, 2-12), which lost its sixth straight game.
The Blazers will host their final regular season contest on Wednesday night when archrival Memphis comes to town for 8 p.m. tipoff at Bartow Arena. The contest will be televised on CSS. It will also mark Senior Night for UAB's senior trio of Kenneth Cooper, Howard Crawford and George Drake.
