53-52 UAB. Really energetic start to the half from Rice. Olivari looking to pass first because UAB is doubling him off of every screen. Two straight assists, one to Lieppert for a much needed 3 and one to Fiedler. But then he picks up an unnecessary 3rd foul which might really hurt us.

Rice pulls within 1 at 52-53 @ 15:18.

Quick run by UAB extends the lead back to 8. Keyed on by an OREB (UAB has been getting stronger on the glass) and an inexplicable defensive breakdown which led to a UAB 3 right after a Rice make.

Man, this is so frustrating that we're without Evee for both games and Mullins for this one. I think this is a team we can beat.

66-59 UAB at the under-12. Even with UAB making some difficult baskets, defense has to clamp down a bit more. We can win this game, but it'll be much more difficult if it's a shootout.

Refs have been fine for the most part tonight, but that's such a weak call. Benches are talking s*** the entire game. If you're giving one guy a tech there, then there should be 5-10 every game.

But there's a good call by the refs, and I think that's Olivari's 4th. Very clear push off when he didn't need to.

Dumb foul by Olivari.

Lack of consistency from the refs is annoying. You have to give #13 there a tech if you're a crew that's calling things tightly. Second time he's rushed over to the ref. Feels like the refs are oscillating between making legit good calls and bad ones. About what you'd expect from CUSA I'd guess. Although, to be fair, the original call on #13 was atrocious. Almost as bad as the block call on Poteat.

73-63 UAB. UAB immediately goes to a zone with Olivari out of the game which is smart. Basically daring us to shoot it.

Forcing shots now. The effort's been phenomenal, but you can see the difference in skill level. 77-67 UAB with 4:41 left.

Think the refs somehow missed one of UAB's shooters being literally poked in the eye.

77-69 UAB and Olivari fouls out on a 50-50 blocking call. We've had a couple opportunities to cut the lead to 5-7 but haven't taken them.

Just hit a cold shooting spell when we couldn’t afford it.

Small stuff like that pass from Sheffield is what we have to take away from this game. You'll see juniors and seniors try to lay that one in, but Sheffield feels two guys converging at the basket and gives it to Fiedler for an easy 2.

86-74 UAB is the final. It probably sounds weird, but I don't think the result really matters. Obviously we want good seeding and a sweep hurts that. But this is probably one of the top 3 teams in the conference and I think with a full roster we can compete with them. Just a really good effort tonight. 74 points when you're missing 32 PPG against a top 100 defense is very admirable.

I really liked what I saw from Sheffield, who will really benefit from this weekend because game time is the best way to learn as a freshman. We saw that a couple years ago with Najja Hunter. This might've been Olivari's best overall game of the year. He was doubled off of every screen, but still shot 55% and made some good passes. We just didn't have the fire power in the end.

I think there are still worries about defense. It's not like we defended UAB well last night with Mullins playing, so we can't use the "best defender is out" excuse. Letting teams score 70-80 gives us a chance to win most games. That's gotta, at minimum, be the aim. Even with our offense being fun this year, 86 allowed is a tough hill to climb.