The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
UTSA
Denzell Watts And Defense Lead UAB Past UTSA, 65-57
1/31/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Final Stats | Box Score 
SAN ANTONIO, Texas ---- By the time the first half clock ran out, UAB sophomore guard Denzell Watts had set a career high with his 13 points. Watts finished with 17 on the night as the UAB men’s basketball team defeated UTSA, 65-57, on Saturday.
The Blazers improve to 7-2 in Conference USA action and 11-11 overall with the win. UTSA falls to 10-10, 4-5 in C-USA.
“I thought Denzell and Tyler (Madison) did a great job for us off the bench,” head coach Jerod Haase said. “It is great to see Denzell shoot the ball that well and put together a complete game for us. It was a hard-fought win, but it’s never easy to get a league win on the road.”
UAB fell behind early in the first half as the Roadrunners built a 9-2 lead and then extended it to 24-13 with 9:15 remaining period. The Blazers responded on the defensive end, holding UTSA scoreless for close to seven minutes.
The Blazers used the seven-minute UTSA scoring drought to go on a 12-0 run to take their first lead, 25-24, with 2:42 on the clock. UTSA scored just five more points for the remainder of the opening stanza as UAB built a 33-29 halftime advantage.
Watts tallied a career-high in scoring and it took him just a half to do so. The Flint, Mich., native scored 13 in the opening frame, including a 3-point basket from the left corner as the buzzer sounded on the first-half clock.
UAB never trailed the rest of the way. The Blazers held UTSA to just 28 points in the second half off of a Roadrunner 10-for-34 (29 percent) shooting performance in the final 20 minutes.
Joining Watts in double figures was freshman forward Chris Cokley, who scored 10 points to go with seven rebounds. The Blazers hit just 22-of-58 (37.9 percent) and made just 3-for-13 (23.1 percent) from 3-point range. UAB continued its strong shooting at the free-throw line, hitting 78.3 percent (18-of-23) at the line.
UAB returns home to face league-leader LA Tech on Thursday. Tip time is set for 8 p.m. CT on the CBS Sports Network.
