The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
UCF
UAB's Late Rally Falls Short Against UCF
2/24/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 24, 2011
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- UAB senior guard Amanda Peterson sank a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left to pull UAB within one point of UCF, but the Knights knocked down a pair of free throws to seal a 53-50 win on Thursday night at Bartow Arena. Peterson finished the game with 15 points, including four treys, while sophomore guard Amber Jones led all scorers with 16 points.
"It's just one of those things where we never should've been in that situation at the end, but we didn't do what we needed to on the defensive end because we didn't play aggressively," UAB head coach Audra Smith said. "One thing we can take away from this is that we held them to just 53 points, but we allowed (the Knights) to penetrate too much and they were playing like a team that wouldn't be denied."
Blazer junior center Meagan Brown grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds and chipped in four points as UAB fell to 14-13 overall and 6-8 in Conference USA. The Knights improved to 17-10 and 10-4 in C-USA.
Gevenia Carter topped the Knights with 10 points, while Chelsie Wiley and Ashia Kelly each added nine.
The Blazers fought back from an eight-point deficit at the 11:28 mark in the second half to pull within one in the final seconds. UAB worked the Knights lead down to five with 2:56 remaining before Jones sank three straight free throws to pull the Blazers within two. After UCF's Ashia Patrick knocked down a bucket to put the Knights back up by four, Peterson drilled a crucial 3-pointer to make it a 51-50 game with 10 seconds remaining.
On the in-bounds play, the Blazers forced a turnover and took possession with seven seconds remaining, but turned it right back over on a traveling call with only three seconds left. Wiley made both free throws after the Blazers fouled on the in-bounds play coming out of a timeout and UAB's last-ditch effort from mid-court was off the mark.
The final seconds reflected the back-and-forth play of the first half. The two teams were evenly matched through the early period, with three ties and three lead changes, and went into halftime tied at 18. Although UAB led by as many as six early in the frame, UCF quickly bounced back after Carter sank a 3-pointer then knocked down three free throws to tie the game at eight with 12:33 to play in the first half.
Both teams struggled from the field in the first half, with UAB shooting 25 percent compared to UCF's 22.2 percent, but Peterson was hot from beyond the arc, hitting a trio of 3-pointers to lead all-scorers with nine points at the break.
The Knights found their stride to open the second half, going on an 11-3 run to begin the frame thanks to seven straight points from Kelly, her first points of the contest. UAB chipped away at the deficit throughout the second half, but never regained lead.
UAB travels to Memphis for its final road test of the regular season on Sunday. The Blazers and Tigers square off at 2 p.m. CT.
