The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
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UAB Defeats UTEP To Advance In C-USA Championship
3/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
2015 C-USA Championship Second Round
No. 6 UAB (18-12, 11-7 C-USA) vs. No. 3 Southern Miss (20-9, 13-5 C-USA)
Thursday, March 12 at 11 a.m. CT
Birmingham, Ala. - Bartow Arena
TV: American Sports Network - www.americansportsnet.com
Coverage:
By Steve Irvine, UABsports.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Take away the final result and UAB's opening performance in the Conference USA Women's Basketball Championship was far from perfect. But, particularly when it comes to postseason play, the final result is really all that matters. So UAB head coach Randy Norton and his sixth-seeded team had plenty to smile about and a clear picture of where they need to improve after a convincing 63-52 victory over No. 11 seed UTEP behind senior Janae Smith, who had 24 points and 11 rebounds, at Bartow Arena.
"Like I just told our players, when a team is good enough to turn it over 23 times and still win by double digits, that's a sign we've got something special," Norton said after his team won their eighth straight game at Bartow Arena and improved to 18-12 overall. "But as we all know as we go on in this thing, we've got to take care of the basketball and we can. We're very capable of taking care of it."
Part of the problem was shaking off the nerves of postseason play, even in the comfortable confines of Bartow Arena. The Blazers won't have that problem tomorrow when they take on No. 3 seed Southern Miss, which earned a first round bye.
"Sometimes people don't like this game, they'd rather have the bye," Norton said. "I almost think it's good to play and kind of get the jitters out at the conference tournament. Now, we've played a game, our girls have been in it. I just feel like we'll be a lot more relaxed and ready to go."
Actually, the Blazers looked relaxed early in Wednesday's game. The Blazers led from the outset and the advantage reached double digits - 15-5 - on a Miranda Burroughs' 3-pointer with 11:43 left in the half. But the turnovers and 3-point shooting by UTEP kept UAB from pulling away in the first 20 minutes. UTEP (12-16) made eight first half baskets with seven coming from outside the 3-point arc. The final 3-pointer, which came from Sparkle Taylor, came at the first half buzzer and trimmed the UTEP deficit to 26-20.
"I didn't feel like we were contesting their 3s," Norton said. "I felt like we were giving them too clean a look."
That changed in the second half. UTEP made just one 3-pointer after halftime and continued to struggle inside the arc. UAB opened the second half with an 11-3 run, fueled by two Burroughs 3-pointers, to build a 37-23 advantage.
However, UTEP kept chipping away and eventually climbed to within 50-43 with just over six minutes left in the game. UAB countered with a 15-foot jumper by junior Chelsee Black and a three-point play by Smith to regain control.
"That's part of the game, people are going to have their runs but it's our job to cut that real short," Smith said. "They are a Division I good team, we have to give them credit but we definitely have to make sure they didn't get too hot off that run."
UAB was able to close out the win by hitting eight consecutive free throws in the final 2:16. Black had 17 points and Burroughs added 12 points, all on 3-pointers, to join Smith in double digits. Junior Brittany Winborne had 10 rebounds to help UAB dominate the boards, 47-29.
Now the Blazers move on to play Southern Miss. The teams split a pair of games this year with UAB winning, 62-49, at Bartow Arena and the Golden Eagles coming back from a halftime deficit to win, 44-39, in Hattiesburg.
"Southern Miss is very well coached, they've got a great program," Norton said. "We just know that we're going to have to play our best. If we play our best then we feel like it's a team we can beat. We're going to have to earn it. I know our kids are going to play with a lot of confidence and be ready to go. We know we got our work cut out for us."
UAB and Southern Miss will meet in the second round on Thursday with tipoff set at 11 a.m. CT. This will be just the third time the Blazers and Lady Eagles have met in the C-USA Championship. The game will air on American Sports Network with Leah Secondo (play-by-play) and Nate Ross (color) on the call. It will also be streamed live on www.americansportsnet.com.
Fans can listen to the game live on UABsports.com with Holly Holland-Berry on the call.
For the latest news on Blazer sports, follow the UAB Athletics Twitter account: @UABathletics. For women's basketball news, follow @UAB_WBB.
