Saturday's Sports Update: Blazers' comeback trumps Owls

By Yan Digilov     2/4/10 6:00pm

Another chance led to another dropped lead for the men's basketball team Saturday afternoon, as Rice (7-15, 1-8 Conference USA) dropped a frustrating 76-65 loss to one of the nation's top teams, University of Alabama- Birmingham. Freshman Arsalan Kazemi led the squad with 15 points and 13 rebounds, followed by senior Cliff Ghoram with and junior Trey Stanton with 12 points each.It was a first half to remember for the Owls. Sophomore guard Lucas Kuipers set the tone early with a three-pointer to start the game, and right off the bat, the home team got back on defense. Holding UAB (19-4, 7-2 C-USA) to 30 percent shooting, Rice's stifling defense produced 13 points off of turnovers in the first half alone.

The Owls maintained a tight lead until 13 minutes left in the first half when the Blazers finally broke through to grab a 10-9 lead with a monster slam dunk. Though it seemed like momentum was about to shift to the home team, Rice stepped up its play and came firing back.

An 8-2 run put Rice up with eight minutes left in the half. Slowly the Owls began pulling away from UAB with relentless defense and a newfound confidence in their ability to score. A big scoring tide came off of a Stanton dunk that made it 25-19 with five minutes left. Frizzelle then scored six points in a row to give them a formidable 31-19 lead with three minutes left in the half.

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But as both squads got more physical, fouls started mounting. The Blazers got five free throws in a row and finished the half down by a score of 31-26.

Unfortunately for the Owls, the scoring drought with which they finished the first half came out with them in the second. It would take them 2:30 before Stanton could make a three-point shot. But by that time, the UAB comeback was complete, and the Owls were down 35-34.

"We got passive," freshman point guard Tamir Jackson said. "We didn't stay aggressive. We stopped getting back on defense in transition. Then we got frustrated with ourselves and started taking bad shots."

The game would become increasingly physical as UAB tried to hold off the Owls throughout the rest of the half. Four minutes into the second, the Owls had already accumulated six fouls. Both teams finished the game in double bonus.

Thanks in large part to UAB's point guard, Aaron Johnson, who finished the game with 28 points, those fouls turned into points for the Blazers. The visitors finished the game making 28 of 34 free throws.

Unable to find a scoring rhythm, Rice watched the game get away from them, and with 12:00 left in the game the score was 52-38. But for the rest of the game, the Owls exhibited outstanding defense, forcing UAB to take 16 three-pointers, eight of which they made.

Both players and fans got back into the game for the rest of the half. Thanks to their defensive strength, Rice cut the score to 55-48 with nine minutes left. The Owls seemed to find their offensive spark with both Stanton and Kazemi applying pressure at the post, but the Blazers had an answer for everything thrown their way.

After going down by 11, Cliff Ghoram got the crowd back into it with a three-pointer that made it 61-53, but UAB responded on the other side with a three-pointer of its own. After Kuipers fired back from beyond the arc, the Blazers drained two in a row from downtown, demoralizing the home team.

"They just hit some big shots, huge shots -daggers," Head Coach Ben Braun said. "We could have climbed, but we dug a hole for ourselves."

Making their free throws down the stretch, UAB was able to pull out a comfortable 76-65 win.

The Owls next face Texas A&M International on Monday at 7 p.m. at Tudor Fieldhouse.

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