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UNC Asheville
Brown Leads Blazers Past UNC Asheville, 79-71
12/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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By Steve Irvine, UABSports.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Robert Brown's fingerprints were all over Sunday night's 79-71 victory over UNC Asheville at Bartow Arena. And not just because Brown was the lone Blazer to reach double digits in scoring as well as the leader in assists. Truthfully, his contribution on the defensive end was as big - if not bigger - than his 19 points and six assists.
The 6-foot-5, 190-pound Brown harassed high-scoring Asheville guard Andrew Rowsey to a season-low in points. Rowsey came into the game averaging a national best 25.3 points per game, hadn't scored less than 20 points in the first eight games this season and reached double digits in 39 of his first 40 games as a college player. On Sunday, the 5-foot-10, 175-pound sophomore managed 18 points but he made just 5-of-17 shots from the field and 3-of-10 from outside the 3-point arc. Most of his problems came because of Brown's defense.
"His length is something that is awfully unique," UAB head coach Jerod Haase said of Brown. "For a player like Rowsey, who is such a good player, I think you have to be able to give him different looks. Robert is athletic enough to be able to stay with him but also long enough to be able to challenge shots if he's not right up against him. I think that was the difference in the game."
Brown said he saw Rowsey get frustrated at different points in the game but knew he couldn't let up.
"We just tried to keep the ball out of his hands," Brown said. "A great scorer like that, the easiest way to guard him is not to let him touch it. My length kind of disturbed him a little bit. I'm a little taller, a little longer, so it kind of helped me."
Brown, who sat out last season after transferring from Virginia Tech, was also the leader on the other end of the floor. He was 6-of-12 from the field and 7-of-11 from the free throw line. He also had six rebounds to go with his six assists. It was the second successive game that he led the team in scoring, coming seven days after scoring 27 points in a 78-74 loss to Illinois State.
"I've talked to him a lot about getting the game to slow down," Haase said. "In practice, a month ago, two months ago, he was absolutely phenomenal. The game came easy, the game was almost slow to him, he could see things and never have to force anything. Then the season started, you put people in the stands, he hadn't played in a year and it started speeding up. He tried to make plays he didn't need to make, he tried to shoot some shots that were forced, make passes that were forced. What he's done is be able to slow the game down a little bit, make the simple plays, be able to work through some things and he's had some success."
But the Blazers don't win on Sunday without plenty of help from his teammates. UAB (4-6) played one of its best stretches of the season early in Sunday's game, jumping to a quick lead and stretching the advantage to 35-19 with 5:25 left in the half. However, by halftime, the Bulldogs (4-5) trimmed the deficit to 41-35.
"My postgame comments were about the next lesson for this team and it's to learn how to handle success," Haase said. "We had some success early on and then we thought it was going to be easy and we let down our guard."
It got more difficult after halftime. The Blazers got sloppy on offense and the Bulldogs kept chipping away. Asheville took the lead twice just before the midway point of the second half and the game was tied at 55-55 with just over eight minutes remaining. But Brown's layup broke the tie and UAB never trailed again.
One reason the Blazers were able to hold onto the lead was their performance at the free throw line down the stretch. The Blazers made 11-of-12 free throws in the final three minutes with Denzell Watts going 6-of-6 during that stretch.
"I thought it was very big," said Watts, who had eight points, five assists, two steals and no turnovers. "Previous games if we had made our free throws, we would have won. I just wanted to step up and help my team. Free throws were a way to help my team so I wanted to knock them down."
UAB now hosts LSU on Thursday at 8 p.m. CT in a Green Out at Bartow Arena. Fans are encouraged to wear green to support the Blazers.
