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Tulsa, UAB Battle for First Place on Tuesday Night
1/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 24, 2010
Tulsa, Oklahoma - Tulsa and UAB will meet for the only time during the regular season on Tuesday night at Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, as this contest will be for the early lead in the Conference USA standings. Both Tulsa and UAB enter the game with 5-0 league records. Game time is slated for 7:00 pm.
UAB has an overall 17-2 mark with impressive home victories over Georgia, Cincinnati and Butler. The Blazers have posted a 9-0 home record this season. Tulsa comes into the game with its' best record since the 1999-2000 season with a 16-3 mark this year. The Hurricane has posted a 3-0 road record with the wins coming in its' last three contests over Houston, SMU and Oral Roberts.
UAB comes into the showdown of C-USA's only unbeaten teams after 5'8" junior guard Aaron Johnson's layup in traffic with 5.6 seconds remaining gave the Blazers a 61-59 victory over previous league undefeated Marshall on Saturday night. Tulsa had a hard-fought 62-58 victory over lowly Rice on Saturday afternoon.
Junior Elijah Millsap, a transfer from Louisiana-Lafayette, leads the Blazers with a 16.4 scoring average, and if that's not impressive enough the 6'4" guard is also the UAB leading rebounder with a 9.5 average per game. Senior forward Howard Crawford scores t a 12.5 clip an grabs 4.8 rebounds per game, while junior transfer Jamarr Sanders averages 10.7 points.
Tulsa's Ben Uzoh leads Tulsa with 16.3 points and 4.2 assists per game. The 6'3" senior guard is coming off of a 17-point, 5-rebound and 4-steal performance against Rice. The Hurricane will need a big performance from 7'0" senior center Jerome Jordan, who's three-footer in last year's meeting gave the Hurricane a 75-74 victory at the Reynolds Center.
Jordan averages 14.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.8 blocked shots for the Hurricane, while junior Justin Hurtt scores at a 14.7 clip, but the 6'4" guard is coming off of his lowest scoring game with only four points against Rice.
Tulsa leads the overall series 6-5. The Hurricane has won the last three meetings, including once at home and twice in Memphis at the Conference USA Tournament. Tulsa has never won in four meetings in Birmingham. The last time Tulsa visited UAB, the Blazers captured an 84-70 win on March 5, 2008.
The game can be heard locally in Tulsa on KRMG Radio 740 AM/FM 102.3 or online at www.tulsahurricane.com.
