BIRMINGHAM – Seniors Will Butler and Antonio Ralat combined for 23 points in UAB’s 72-63 victory over Old Dominion for Senior Night on Saturday at Bartow Arena.
Butler scored 12 on 4-of-6 shooting and Ralat nine, as neither player missed a foul shot, going 8-for-8 together.
UAB was led by Tavin Lovan’s game-high 23 points along with Tyreek Scott-Grayson’s 10 in the win. Lovan also added a team-best seven rebounds for the Blazers (18-13, 9-9 C-USA).
Malik Curry and A.J. Oliver, II each scored 16 points for the Monarchs (13-18, 9-9 C-USA).
ODU went ahead in the first half by as many as eight points after a pair of Oliver, II foul shots made the score 14-6 at 12:45. The Blazers would respond with a 22-8 run to grab a six point advantage when Lovan’s jumper put UAB up 28-22 with 3:00 remaining in the half. The Monarchs would score the next six points to tie game before Scott-Grayson’s 3-pointer with 27 seconds left put UAB ahead 33-31 entering halftime.
UAB would not relinquish the lead in the second half. A Jordan Brinson jumper at 14:20 put the Blazers up by eight points at 43-35. A Lovan foul shot with 7:06 remaining gave UAB its first double-digit lead at 54-44. The largest lead the Blazers had was 14 with 5:43 to play.
Old Dominion was able to make it a two possession contest with 2:15 remaining, but the UAB defense would only allow a pair of field goals the rest of the way.
For the eighth time this season, the Blazers made at least half of their shots, hitting 23-of-45 tonight. They were clutch from the foul line, making 21-of-23 attempts. They outscored ODU in the pain 32-22 and grabbed 34 rebounds to the Monarchs 30.
“I knew the level of emotion of our players was going to be high tonight for Will and Antonio,” said head coach Robert Ehsan. “I knew it was going to be tough to beat us, it wasn’t pretty, but it was a great win.”
“Tavin got us going the way he attacked the basket. He did a good job at getting the ball into the paint when he needed to.”
Lovan was 6-for-11 shooting and a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line.
“Because of our success we had at the Conference USA Championship last year and what’s on the line, our guys are really excited to go to Frisco and play.”
UAB is a No. 7 seed and will face No. 10 seed UTSA (13-18, 7-11 C-USA) in the First Round of the tournament. The game will be on Wed., March 11 with an 8:30 p.m. tipoff time. The winner will face No. 2 seed WKU (20-10, 13-5 C-USA), who receives a first round bye, in the quarterfinal round on Thursday at 8:30 p.m.
