BIRMINGHAM – UAB outscored Middle Tennessee 47-34 in the second half en route to an 83-72 victory over Middle Tennessee on Wednesday night at Bartow Arena.
Tavin Lovan scored a career-high 25 points, making 10 of his 11 field goal attempts and knocked down all five of his foul shots.
Will Butler also recorded a career-high with 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting and pulled down seven rebounds. Jalen Benjamin added 21 points, tying a career-high with six 3-pointers and Makhtar Gueye scored 10 along with eight boards for the Blazers (15-11, 6-7 C-USA).
Antonio Green scored a game-high 26 points for Middle Tennessee (6-20, 2-11 C-USA).
Middle Tennessee started the contest by scoring the first eight points of the game and made its first seven shots while holding UAB without a field goal until 16:31 of the first half. The Blue Raiders’ lead was 12 at 15:26. Benjamin’s 3-pointer at 6:43 capped a 15-5 run to get UAB within one basket at 23-21. The teams played it even the rest of the half as MT took a 38-36 advantage into halftime.
The Blazers opened up the second half on a 10-2 run to take a 46-40 lead. With UAB ahead 55-52, a Gueye jumper started a 16-2 run that gave the Blazers their largest lead of the game, 17 points at 71-54 at the 7:05 mark. UAB would hold a double-digit lead for all but 17 seconds the rest of the way.
Next up, the Blazers head to Murfreesboro to take on Middle Tennessee on Saturday afternoon. This is the final game before C-USA Bonus Play. The pairings will be officially announced on Sunday afternoon.
Single game tickets are on sale now and can be purchased by clicking here or by calling the UAB Athletics Ticket Office at 205-975-UAB1.
Group packages are also available for 20 or more and provide your friends or co-workers an opportunity to save money while taking advantage of special fan experiences to any home basketball game. To purchase group tickets or inquire about opportunities for the 2019-20 season, please contact Chris Curtis at (205) 934-3172 or ccurtis2@uab.edu.
