The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Marshall
UAB Downs Marshall At C-USA Championship, Advances To Face UCF Thursday
3/9/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 9, 2011
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EL PASO, Texas - UAB sophomore guard Amber Jones tied her career-high with 23 points and senior guard Amanda Peterson surpassed the 300 career 3-point plateau as seventh-seeded UAB defeated No. 10 seed Marshall, 56-45, in the opening game of the 2011 Buick Conference USA Women's Basketball Championship Wednesday afternoon at UTEP's Memorial Gym.
With the win, the Blazers improve to 16-14 on the year and advance to take on No. 2 seed UCF at noon MT/1 p.m. CT on Thursday. Marshall concludes its 2010-11 season at 9-21.
"I'm extremely proud of the way my team came out and played today," UAB head coach Audra Smith said. "We had so many contributions from different people. The one thing we've been hanging our hat on all year is our defense and I'm proud of the fact we were able to hold Marshall to just 45 points."
The Blazers out-rebounded the Thundering Herd 43-30, turned 17 offensive rebounds into 13 second-chance points, and scored 13 points off the bench to Marshall's zero.
Jones hit 9-of-19 field goals to pace the Blazers while chipping in with four rebounds, two assists and a steal.
"Amber made some huge plays," Smith said. "Amber is explosive. We call her 'Turbo' because she can just turn it on. She has the uncanny ability to really get it going and once that happens, it's hard to stop her."
Peterson, meanwhile, drained a quartet of 3-pointers to bring her career trey total to 302. She joins Cincinnati's Valerie King (338 from 2000-04) and DePaul's Lenae Williams (330 from 1998-2002) as the only C-USA players to hit the 300 3-pointer mark. Peterson also set a UAB single-season treys record with 86, surpassing her own mark of 83 a year ago.
UAB's Karisma Chapman fell one rebound shy of a double-double with 10 points and a team-best nine boards in 32 minutes off the bench. Khalilah Watson paced the Blazers with a game-high four assists.
Marshall got off to a good start as the Thundering Herd scored the first two baskets of the ballgame. UAB did not score its first point until Peterson drained her first trey 2:02 into the contest, and her basket sparked a 12-0 Blazer run over the next 5:13.
The Herd answered with a 7-0 streak to make it a one-point affair at 12-11 and the margin remained close until the final four minutes of the half. Clinging to an 18-17 advantage with 4:01 to go before the break, UAB rattled off 10 of the final 11 points of the stanza - holding Marshall to just one free throw during that span - to take a 27-18 lead into the locker room.
The Herd made things interesting midway through the second stanza as Marshall used a 15-8 rally to start the half and cut the deficit down to one at 34-33 with 9:49 left to play in regulation. UAB answered with a Peterson 3-pointer but Marshall got a layup plus the and-one free throw by Lateidra Elliott on the ensuing possession to keep a one-point affair at 37-36.
"We've had situations this year where we've been up and a team has made a run," Smith said. "We've talked about the fact that teams are going to fight back, and Marshall definitely did that, but we were able to respond with some really big shots."
From there, however, Jones sandwiched a pair of jumpers around a Peterson bucket from downtown to create some separation and the Blazers never looked back. The UAB lead swelled to as many as 13 three times over the final 2:18 and Alaya Mitchell scored for Marshall with 36 seconds to play to account for the final score.
Tynikki Crook led Marshall with 18 points, 13 rebounds, two blocks and a pair of assists. Veronica Ruiz joined her in the double-digit scoring club with 13 points after hitting 5-of-11 shots from the field - including a trey - and drained both of her free throw opportunities.
