The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Tulane
UAB Downs Tulane, 72-64
3/8/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 8, 2012
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Cameron Moore and Ovie Soko each tallied double-doubles to lead UAB past Tulane 72-64 on Wednesday night in the opening round of the Conference USA tournament.
"The first half, I felt like we played with great energy and gave great effort, but we played too fast," UAB head coach Mike Davis said. "That threw our timing off. We were making passes too quickly and we didn't set our screens correctly. I knew that if we just came in and settled down, that we would be okay."
The fifth-seeded Blazers (15-15) will take on fourth-seeded UCF in the conference tournament quarterfinal round on Thursday night. The Knights dealt UAB a loss in the regular-season finale on March 3.
Moore scored 22 points and pulled down 14 rebounds, while Soko finished with a career-best 20 points and had 12 boards for the Blazers, who have won five of their last six contests.
"We had no chance of winning that game if Ovie doesn't play the way that he did, tonight," Davis said. "That is the Ovie Soko that we have been expecting the whole year. He had 20 (points), Cameron (Moore) had 22, Ovie had 12 boards and Cameron had 14, so that is a really good night from your four and five (players)."
The Green Wave led 28-27 at intermission, but Moore scored the first four points of overtime to fuel a 14-7 Blazers run and they never trailed again. UAB outscored Tulane 45-36 in the second half to seal it.
Josh Davis scored 20 points to pace the 12th-seeded Green Wave (15-16), who ended their season with eight straight defeats.
