Cold Shooting Dooms UAB in Loss to Richmond

Monday, November 20

Grand Cayman Island

4:00 PM

UAB

3-1

Richmond

1-2

Richmond

UAB

Cold Shooting Dooms UAB in Loss to Richmond

11/20/2017 7:14:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands – A stagnant offensive start turned into a difficult afternoon for the UAB men's basketball team as the Blazers fell, 63-50, to Richmond in the first round of the Cayman Island Classic on Monday.

The Blazers fell behind, 7-0, in the early minutes, trailed by as many as 18 points in the first half and went into halftime with a 36-20 deficit. Despite a spirited run in the second half, UAB was unable to completely dig out of the early hole.

With the loss, UAB falls into the loser's bracket and will play the loser of the final first round game between Cincinnati and Buffalo.

"Give them credit, they came out of the gates really well, made some tough shots early, really got going," said UAB head coach Robert Ehsan, whose team fell to 3-1. "Offensively, we just really struggled tonight. We shot 4-of-23 from outside the 3-point stripe. A lot of them were good looks, I thought. Because of our lack of offensive productivity, we were unable to get scores and that gave them confidence."

UAB had difficulty stopping 6-foot-10 redshirt freshman Grant Golden. He doubled his previous career high with 26 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. It was Golden who helped Richmond (1-2) get off to the good start. He scored eight early points and had 12 at halftime.

The Blazers never really got in sync in the first 20 minutes. Freshman guard Zack Bryant had a team-high eight points in the first half, including a three-point play and a steal and dunk in the final minutes to give the Blazers a little momentum at the end of a difficult half.

UAB played well early in the second half but didn't do as much damage as was available.

"We came out in the second half really fired up," Ehsan said. "The frustrating thing was, in the first two minutes, Nick Norton gets a wide open three-pointer and Nate Darling gets a wide open trey and neither one goes down. If one of those goes down, maybe we build on it."

Midway through the half, though, UAB finally started clicking. Norton's 17-footer started a 12-2 run that got the Blazers back in the game. Norton hit the team's first 3-pointer of the game during that run and Bryant also had a 3-pointer.

Bryant's 3-pointer, which came with 8:03 left, cut the deficit to 46-40. Golden countered with two free throws and a 3-pointer from the top of the key to build the lead back to double digits. UAB sandwiched 3-pointers by Norton and Bryant around a Richmond bucket to cut the deficit to 53-46 with 4:38 remaining but that was the closest the Blazers would come.

Ehsan said he thought the UAB defense was good enough for the Blazers to win.

"I thought (with) 63 points, we should have had a different result," Ehsan said. "If you would have told me they would have scored 63, I thought we'd be in good shape."

But the offensive struggles were too much to overcome. UAB shot just 33 percent from the field and had nine assists with 16 turnovers. Bryant (16 points) and William Lee (11 points, six rebounds) were the lone double digit scorers for the Blazers. Chris Cokley had eight points and 10 rebounds, marking the first time this season he's failed to get a double-double.

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