The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Lane College
Blazers Control Lane College 96-48 in Exhibition Play
11/7/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Box Score (PDF)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The UAB women’s basketball team was explosive in the second half of its 96-48 exhibition victory over Lane College Monday night at Bartow Arena. Five Blazers tallied double figures in the balanced team win.
Deanna Kuzmanic paced the Blazers’ offense with 15 points, while Keonna Farmer commanded the boards with 14 rebounds to go along with 13 points. Rachael Childress came off the bench and added 11 as she went 4-of-6 from the floor, thanks to a 3-of-4 showing from beyond the arc. Imani Johnson and Whytney Singleton both chipped in 10 points apiece, while Miyah Barnes dished out a game-best seven assists.
“I was really pleased tonight,” head coach Randy Norton said. “That was a great team win. These exhibitions games are all about making improvements and the thing that we challenged our team was, I’m not worried about this team scoring points, we have to get better on the defensive end. We had given up 32 points in the first half and then came out in the second half and the girls set a goal to hold Lane under 50 and we held them to 48, so 16 in the second half.
UAB opened the game quickly and had an 18-8 lead midway through the first quarter. An 11-2 run by Kuzmanic extended the Blazers’ advantage as they led 22-14 at the end of the first break.
The second quarter brought more of the same as UAB added to its lead with an 11-3 run, extending its lead 34-18. The Lady Dragons responded with an 11-2 run of their own as they cut the lead to eight at 40-32 with 1:52 to play in the second quarter.
Free throws by Micah Scheetz and Farmer kept Lane College at bay as the Blazers headed into the break with a 45-32 advantage.
To open the third quarter, the Lady Dragons’ press gave the Blazers some trouble, which cut UAB’s lead to nine at 45-36. Coach Norton called timeout which sparked the Blazers on a 24-7 run, to extend their lead to 69-42.
It was smooth sailing for UAB as it closed out the game on a 51-12 run spanning the third and fourth quarter.
“I feel like our team is unselfish,” Kuzmanic added. “We don’t have a problem scoring, like coach said. Everyone on our team is a scoring threat, but one thing we do really well is make that extra pass and you can see with all of our assists that we’re sharing the ball a lot, which shows that we have good chemistry.”
On the night, UAB shot an impressive 57.1 percent (8-of-14) from 3-point range, and 54.1 percent (33-of-61) overall. The Blazers held the Lady Dragons to 27.8 percent (15-of-54) from the floor and a mere 22.2 percent (4-of-18) from long range.
The Blazers open regular season action in Chicago on Thursday, November 10, against Gardner-Webb in the Maggie Dixon Classic, hosted by DePaul.
