Nov. 22, 2008
NORFOLK, VA--UAB senior guard Robert Vaden scored a game high 28 points to lead theBlazers (4-0) to a 77-62 victory over the Monarchs of Old Dominion(1-1) Saturday afternoonIn front of a crowd of 7870 at the Ted Constant Convocation Center.
Vaden scored 22 of his 28 points in the first half on 8-for-10 shooting from the field and six-for-seven shooting from three point range. UAB led 47-37 at the half, hitting (17-27).630 from the floor and (8-10).800 from beyond the arch. Lawrence Kinnard added 17 points and 10 rebounds and Paul Delaney,IIIscored 15 points and dished out five assists.
The Blazers finished the game shooting .500 (26-52) from the floor and .524 (11-21)from three. The eight treys by Vaden is a new Constant Center record. The previousmark was six held by Brooks Hall of Dayton on Dec. 20, 2002.
ODU shot .299(20-67) for the game, but outrebounded the Blazers, 43-35 and committed onlynine turnovers. From beyond the arch, the Monarchs were 8-30 (.267).
Marsharee Neely (Greensboro, NC. )led ODU with a career high 14 points and eight rebounds. Gerald Lee (Uusikaupunki, Finland) followed With 10 points and four assists, while Jonathan Adams (Ringgold, GA. ) scored nine with 10 rebounds. Darius James (Virginia Beach, VA.) scored eight points and dished out five assists.
Vaden got UAB off to a 5-0 lead to start the game, but the Monarchs came back on some strong shooting from Jonathan Adams and Marsharee Neely to 8-5. There were five ties in the first half, heLast at 10:45 left with the score 20-20 on a layup by Vaden. Keyon Carter (Riviera Beach, FL.) put ODU up,22-20, but Vaden came right back and hit a trey with 9:17 left to put the Blazers up for good at 23-22.
In the second half, UAB led by as much at 16, 53-37 with 17:48 left. ODU cut the leads to eight twice at59-51with 10:56 left on a layup by Ben Finney and 61-53 with 7:44 left on a free throw by Gerald Lee.
The Monarchs return to action on Tuesday when they travel to Bucknell for a 7 p.m. contest inLewisburg, PA.