UAB vs Coppin State:
Prior to both teams playing, UAB played Coppin State (0-11) on day two of the Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Classic. The Blazers defeated the Golden Eagles 86-61. The Blazers set a record-breaking 18 3-pointers.
"I was kind of frustrated with our defense and then I looked at the stat sheet and offensively we had a lot of positive things," head coach Randy Norton said. "I look at the assist to turnovers and we had 25 to 11, and 18 3-pointers."
Senior Deanna Kuzmanic led UAB in scoring and rebounding with 17 and eight, respectively. Kuzmanic matched her career high in rebounding en route to being the only player on the team to finish with double digit points in every game this season.
Junior Rachael Childress finished the game with 15 points off of five made buckets from beyond the arc. Childress recorded her 51st 10+ point performance and her 44th game with three or more 3-pointers.
Freshman Margaret Whitley rounded out the Blazers in double figures as she netted a career high 12 points. Whitley finished with a career high four 3-pointers as three came in the third quarter.
UAB's bench outscored Coppin State 36-0 as the Blazers held their opponents bench scoreless for the first time this season. Whitley, Kerstein and Magee accounted for 29 points of the bench's production.
"Our bench came in and played well for us," Norton said. "We knew that they could do that and we knew that tonight we needed to rest some people so our bench was going to be extremely important. They came in and did a great job and it was a great pick me up for the team."
Freshman Jalynda Salley led Coppin State, finishing with a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Junior Chance Graham also finished with 22 points.
FGCU vs UAB:
"This is a tough loss," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "I thought we competed on the defensive end, but we didn't execute offensively at a high enough level to win, and we didn't shoot it well enough. The shots were hard to come by. They are a really good defensive team, but when we had our opportunities, we didn't shoot it very well."
"That was a great win over a really good basketball team," Norton said. "Florida Gulf Coast has an outstanding program, are extremely well coached and for our girls to come in and to be able to beat them on their home court is a big deal. I am really proud of our team and the poise they played with down the stretch."
Junior Nasrin Ulel had 13 of her team-high 24 points in the fourth quarter as she helped the Eagles come back from a six-point deficit with 8:15 left. Early on in the quarter, she had a pair of 3-pointers to pull the Eagles within one. Then, with her team down four, she sank a pair of free throws and converted a game-tying layup with 36 seconds left.
On the other end, however, Kuzmanic hit a go-ahead jumper in the paint with nine seconds left. After multiple timeouts, redshirt senior Lisa Zderadicka curled around the left side of the defense, but a reverse layup attempt rimmed out and the Eagles couldn't get off another shot as time expired.
In addition to Ulel's production, Zderadicka chipped in 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting along with two rebounds and two assists. With her 15 points, Zderadicka surpassed 900 career points. She now has 907, including 381 in the Green and Blue after transferring from Houston Baptist prior to the start of last year.
Junior Tytionia Adderly had a game-high 14 rebounds along with a team-high three assists and two steals. Adderly had 11 defensive rebounds to push her career total to 383. In doing so, she surpassed Taylor Gradinjan (381, 2012-18) for third all-time on the program's Division-I era list.
Her two steals also allowed her to surpass Stephanie Haas (108, 2012-16) for sole possession of 10th in D-I era career steals with 110.
Redshirt junior Davion Wingate scored eight of her nine points during a two-minute stretch in the third quarter after FGCU fell behind by eight. In fact, she had the Eagles' first points of the half with 4:45 left in the third.
Kuzmanic, who finished with a game-high 31 points along with eight rebounds, three assists, three steals and a block, was named the Hilton Garden Classic MVP.
Childress joined Kuzmanic on the Hilton Garden Inn Classic All-Tournament Team after finishing with 12 points. The junior surpassed the 1,000 point mark with a field goal in the first quarter to become the 29th member of UAB's 1,000 Point Scoring Club.
Ulel and Zderadicka represented FGCU on the all-tournament team while Graham represented Coppin State.
The two teams, who entered the game among the nation's best in 3-point shooting, finished a combined 9-for-43 from long distance. UAB, however, hit two of their three in an 8-0 run to break open a tie game at the half and set the tone for the rest of the way. FGCU shot 3-for-4 from 3-point range in the final quarter, but were 3-for-24 prior to that.
The Eagles will close out 2018 on the road as they travel to the Carolina Triangle to face Duke at the Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina on Sunday, December 30 at 2 P.M.
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