Boxscore

The University of Alabama-Birmingham turned up the pressure oin Louisiana Tech with 15:00 remaining in the contest.

UAB's pressure defense allowed the Blazers to break open a tight game as Alabama-Birmingham went on to take a 79-67 win over the Bulldogs Tuesday at Bartow Arena.

The Blazers went on a 26-10 run over the first nine minutes of the second half, taking advantage of seven Tech turnovers after intermission to pull out to a double-digit lead. The Bulldogs committed only 10 turnovers in the first half but finished with 23.

"They're a good team," Tech coach Keith Richard said. "We're young and they're better than us right now. When a team is more talented than you, then over the course of time that will show. They'll taller and longer and are a hard team to play."

Louisiana Tech led 35-34 at the half and traded leads with the Blazers for the first five minutes of the second half before UAB's relentless pressure defense forced numberous turnovers by the Bulldogs resulting in points for Alabama-Birmingham on the other end of the court.

UAB scored 17 points off of Tech turnovers in the contest.

Freshman forward Paul Millsap led the Bulldogs with his fifth double-double of the season as he poured in 17 points, including a 3-pointer at the final buzzer, while adding 10 rebounds and four blocked shots.

JueMichael Young chipped in with 12 points for the Bulldogs while Corey Dean added nine points and five rebounds.

Tech's Eric Woods scored a season-high nine points while adding five rebounds for the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs only hit on 36.4 percent of their shots from the floor in the opening half while Alabama-Birmingham connected on 41.4 percent of its attempts. But Tech outrebounded the Blazers 29-18 before intermission, scoring 12 second-chance points off of 12 offensive boards.

Tech utilized four guards for much of the first half to help against UAB's pressure defense with the Bulldogs still managing to score 18 points in the paint before the halftime horn sounded.

The Bulldogs finished with a .390 shooting percentage (23-of-59) while UAB connected on 46.3 percent (31-of-67) of its shots.

Tech won the battle of the boards, outrebounding the Blazers by a 45-39 margin.

"We did play some good basketball out there tonight," Richard said. "We did a lot of good things we wanted to do and I think we improved playing these guys. You have to play really good to win on the road, and we didn't play good enough to accomplish that tonight."

Demario Eddins led UAB with 16 points while Gabe Kennedy chipped in with 12 points and six rebounds while Ronell Taylor added 11 points for the Blazers.

Louisiana Tech returns to action on Saturday when the Bulldogs play a 3 p.m. contest at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La.