ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Tyreek Scott-Grayson and Will Butler each scored a career-highs in UAB’s 71-63 victory in the first game of the St. Pete Shootout on Saturday afternoon. Makhtar Gueye added a 12 points and nine rebounds for the Blazers (7-4).
Scott-Grayson scored 25 points – including the Blazers’ first nine and made his first seven shot from the floor as UAB never trailed and led for 38 minutes of the contest.
After Scott-Grayson opened up the game on fire, ASU (1-10) got within one point on Kevion Stewart’s 3-pointer that made the score 11-10 with 15:10 left in the 1st half. The Blazers would respond with an 11-1 run to get its first double-figure lead at 22-12 at the 10:58 mark. Gueye’s free throw on an and-1 put UAB ahead by 12 and gave them their largest lead of the game at 31-19. They took a 34-26 lead into halftime.
DJ Heath’s layup tied the score at 40-40 with 14:27 remaining in the 2nd half. With UAB up by one, they went on a 10-0 run to take an 11 point lead at 65-54 with 3:56 remaining. Heath’s layup with 1:57 left made it a two possession game, but Scott-Grayson’s 3-pointer with 1:02 left closed out the game’s scoring and put the Hornets at arm’s length.
UAB made a season-best 22 free throws and was a +12 on the boards, outrebounding Alabama State 40-28.
“Tyreek has been playing with more confidence,” said head coach Robert Ehsan. “It’s great to see him get better and better. We’re going to need him to continue to play like that tomorrow.”
Scott-Grayson is coming off a then-career-high 20 points against North Alabama last Saturday.
“We need to try and get Will the basketball as much as we can. We did a good job at getting him touches and he finished. Will played really well tonight.
Butler’s previous career-high was 11 points on Dec. 12, 2018 against North Alabama,
Next up is Duquesne (10-0), who defeated Austin Peay 86-77 in the first game of the event. The Dukes and Blazers will meet for the first time since 1996 on Sunday afternoon at 1:30 p.m.
The Blazers return home for a matchup against Thomas on Dec. 28.
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. Discounted group tickets and fan experiences are available for a minimum purchase of 20 tickets. To inquire about group tickets for the 2019-20 season, please contact Chris Curtis at (205) 934-3172 or ccurtis2@uab.edu.
Along with single game and group tickets which are already on sale, fans now have the option to purchase a four-game mini plan which offers the flexibility of attending any four Conference USA games at Bartow Arena for only $40 in the upper level. The C-USA Pick 4 Mini Plan can be purchased by clicking here or by calling the UAB Athletics Ticket Office at 205-975-UAB1.
