Recap: UAB 62, Tulane 61

The Green Wave fell in a heartbreaker 62-61 Friday night. The Blazers brought the ball up with 10 seconds left after forward David Gomez missed the second of two free throws. With less than two seconds left in the game, referees called a foul on guard Kevin Sims for reaching in on UAB guard Ed Barrios, who was in the act of shooting a three pointer. Barrios hit all three free throws. The Green Wave couldn't get a final shot off and subsequently fell to 10-5 on the year.


Players of the Game: UAB guard Ed Barrios (or the officiating crew, depending on your perspective)

There were a few main problems with calling a foul on Sims on the final possession:

1) Barrios initiated the contact. The UAB point guard was trapped in the corner by forward Donnie Stith and Sims and had nowhere to go. In desperation, he flung his body forward into Stith and Sims, who both had position and weren't moving.

2) Some observers say the foul was on Sims because he reached in on Barrios, not because of the contact on the shot. In this scenario, the Blazers should have only shot two free throws, not three, since the foul occurred before the shot and there is no continuation rule in college basketball. This certainly would have been a ticky-tack foul as well.

However, head coach Dave Dickerson thought it was a good call, and there wasn't a lot of complaining on the Tulane side. In any case, Barrios' decision to fling himself a the basket in hopes of drawing a foul was a heady play and resulted in a win for the Blazers.

Stat of the Game: 50

The Green Wave defense broke down in the second half, allowing the Blazers to hit 50% of their shots compared to only 30% in the first half. Many of UAB's points late in the game came on easy penetration to the basket. The help defense seemed as step too slow on every play. Offensive rebounds also kept UAB in the game down the stretch and allowed the hot-shooting Blazers more opportunities. The final rebounding margin was 40-29 in favor of the Blazers.

Quote of the game: Head Coach Dave Dickerson

"I thought it was a good call (the foul on UAB's last second shot). We're not complaining about the call. We had our chances to win this game and hats off to UAB and (Ed) Berrios. Whenever you can go to the line with 1.6 seconds and win the game with three back-to-back free throws is a hell of a job. They made all the right plays and we didn't. It is as simple as that. We missed a free throw that would have tied the situation up and would have forced over time, and we had an easy shot in front of the basket and missed that. The bottom line is we couldn't rebound the ball enough to win the game. They out-rebounded us and made all the tough plays, and we have to go back and work on that."

Coming Up Tulane will continue conference play on the road with games against Southern Miss tomorrow and Tulsa on Jan. 16.