The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Lipscomb
UAB's Complete Game Tops Lipscomb, 72-54
11/19/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Senior Janae Smith scored a career-high 31 points to lead the UAB women's basketball team past Lipscomb, 72-54, on Wednesday night in front of the home crowd. The Blazers won their fourth-straight home opener.
"As I told the players in the locker room, I thought this was the most engaged 40 minutes since I've been here," head coach Randy Norton said. "It wasn't perfect, but I felt like they were really trying to be assignment correct defensively. Lipscomb has a team that can shoot the three and we knew if we stayed locked in and were assignment correct then we could hold them to less than what they usually score.
UAB improved to 1-1 on the season, while Lipscomb fell to 1-2 overall. The Blazers shot 48.9 percent from the field, including 50 percent in the second half, and held the Lady Bisons to 32.3 percent on the night.
Smith opened the game a perfect 10-for-10 from the field and finished 12-of-15 on the night. She was also perfect from the free throw line, sinking 7-of-7. Also finishing in double figures were junior Chelsee Black with 14 points and senior Miranda Burroughs, who added 10 on three 3-pointers.
Junior Bianca Dufelmeier had a career-high, leading UAB with 12 rebounds and posting eight points. Smith and junior Dy'man Webb each added six boards for the Blazers.
It was a balanced team effort as eight of the 10 players that saw action scored, recorded a rebound and had an assist for the Blazers. UAB won the battle on the boards with 38 rebounds to the Lady Bison's 36. The Blazers also capitalized on Lipscomb's turnovers, scoring 20 points off 12 turnovers.
"It is really important to have that depth," Norton remarked. "It is a long season and there are going to be games where some of these starters are going to log some big minutes, so if we can rotate them early, we want to be able to do that and keep everyone as fresh as we can. If we can rotate through and get our bench some confidence, that will be important as the season goes on. There are going to be games where somebody gets in foul trouble or sprains an ankle, then we can turn to our bench and they will have had that experience."
After scoring the first points of the game, the Blazers jumped out to a 12-6 lead, which included seven points from Black. The team extended its run to a 17-9 lead at the 11:01 mark in the first half. During that span, UAB held Lipscomb to just three points in five minutes of game time.
The Lady Bisons were able to cut the lead to two points at the 9:08 mark, but the Blazers closed out the first half with an 11-4 run to take a 33-23 lead into the break.
In the second half, UAB came out firing as Burroughs hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Smith added two-straight layups to push the lead to 19 at 46-27 with 16:49 still to play. UAB kept finding ways to get the ball inside to Smith, who hit four consecutive shots for the Blazers.
"My guards just did a really good job of getting me the ball," Smith said. "As coach said, we play inside out so once they were digging it in defensively on the inside, we were able to get the ball back out."
Dufelmeier hit her second three at the 9:07 mark to give UAB the 57-38 lead and break a two-minute dry spell for both teams. The Blazers went on to take their largest lead of the game, up 72-52 with 45 seconds remaining, and then Lipscomb hit a layup to make it a 72-54 final. Ashley Southern led the Lady Bisons with 17 points and added nine rebounds on the night.
"We still have a long way to go and our players know that, but as long as we are getting better then I am proud as a coach," Norton stated. "I am proud of our effort tonight, and we will take tomorrow off and then come back on Friday to get ready for Saturday's game (UAB vs. Alcorn State)."
UAB will return to its home court to host Alcorn State on Saturday at 7 p.m. CT. It will be the last home game before five-straight road games.
For the latest news on Blazer sports, follow the UAB Athletics Twitter account: @UABathletics. For women's basketball news, follow @UAB_WBB.
