Southern Miss
UAB
Men's Basketball Falls in Birmingham to Second-Place Blazers
1/28/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Final Stats | USATSI photo gallery 
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- UAB's balanced attack and home-court advantage got the best of Southern Miss on Saturday night as the Golden Eagles dropped an 87-43 decision inside Bartow Arena.
"We had a great practice and shootaround here at UAB," head coach Doc Sadler said. "I really felt good. We have to figure things out. Our defense was good for about 10 or 12 minutes, and I told the coaches on the sideline we were lucky we were not down more. We just could not score, and you stay with it as long as you can."
Cortez Edwards' mid-range jumper at the 10:24 mark cut Southern Miss' deficit to 13-4, but the Blazers scored 21 of the next 27 points to lead 34-10 with 2:51 remaining.
UAB, second-place in Conference USA and the defending regular season champs, led 42-16 at the intermission, and after two forced turnovers, Southern Miss struck first in the second half as Edwards hit two free-throws. The Blazers, however, went on an 11-3 run that they were able to build upon for the remainder of the game.
"You can't give half a step to a team that has three starters back from a Sweet 16 team two years ago," Sadler said.
Southern Miss returns home for a pair of weekend games, first with Marshall at 7 p.m. on Thursday. The Saturday matchup with Western Kentucky (4 p.m.) comes as part of a triple-header with the William Carey men's and women's teams for Pine Belt Community Recovery Day.
NOTES
-The Golden Eagles have shot better than 75 percent in five of their last six games, complete with a 17-for-22 performance Saturday (77.3 percent).
-Southern Miss' 12 offensive rebounds were its most since Dec. 19 vs. Mississippi State.
-Quinton Campbell made all four of his free-throw attempts, putting him at 17-for-20 (85 percent) over the last four games.
-D'Angelo Richardson has 11 assists in his last three games. He had 15 all year prior to that span.
-Cortez Edwards' pair of steals padded his team lead to 28.
-Christian Clark made his fourth-career appearance.
