Mike Ertel has made eight starts this season, including the last four games, but was relegated back to the bench for the UAB basketball team in a midweek contest with its closest geographical rival.
He doesn’t consider it personal. Just business.
“Everybody wants to start but now I really just don’t care,” Ertel said. “I know if I play well, I’ll continue to play. Tonight decided to go with Tavin (Lovan) and that’s perfectly fine with me. Tavin deserves it just as much as me.”
The Blazers missed their first five shots of the game but Ertel came off the bench to hit his first five shots from beyond the arc to help fuel an 81-68 victory over rival Southern Miss, Wednesday, March 2, at Reed Green Coliseum in Hattiesburg .
“What is crazy is that we played well in spurts, we had our attention to detail,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy told David Crane on the Blazer Sportsline postgame show. “I call it operating right, regardless of circumstances. It’s not about anything but you so let’s operate right.”
“I felt like we didn’t operate right at times and that drives me crazy,” he added. “I’ll be OK once we’re about at Laurel (Miss.). It’ll take about 45 minutes and then I’ll exhale.”
UAB entered the game holding position outside the top 50 of both KenPom (54) and the NCAA NET (55) and improves to 23-7 overall and 13-4 in league play after securing the west division 2-seed and double-bye in the C-USA tournament.
The Blazers shot 47 percent from the field, an impressive 60 percent on 3-pointers, but went 5-for-14 at the charity stripe. Defensively, they held Southern Miss to 42 percent overall, forced 13 turnovers that resulted in 16 points and won the rebounding battle with a plus-11 edge on the glass.
Jordan “Jelly” Walker had a game-high 21 points, adding six assists and four rebounds, and Quan Jackson contributed 11 points, six rebounds and three steals.
Ertel finished with 20 points, adding two steals, and was 6-for-8 from beyond the arc. He made his first five 3-point attempts of the game to power a 12-2 first-half run that shifted momentum back to the Blazers.
“The backdrop (of Reed Green Coliseum) reminds me a lot of my old school,” Ertel said. “I worked at it and they went in today. That’s all it was.”
UAB fell behind early, 7-4, but took control of the first half with a 12-2 run and ultimately outscored the Golden Eagles by 15 points down the stretch. The Blazer did not let up to open the second half as they built as much as a 22-point lead with 6:05 remaining in the game.
Southern Miss put together an 11-2 closing run as the Blazers were held scoreless for 5:26 until Ertel hit two free throws with 39 seconds left in the game. UAB did not make a field goal the final six minutes but held the Golden Eagles to only 3-of-8 from the field.
Trey Jemison once more came within a bucket of logging a double-double, finishing with 12 rebounds, eight points and two blocks.
“I was happy,” Kennedy said. “I didn’t think it was his best night, as far as being engaged. It was things that Trey didn’t do.”
Tavin Lovan had eight points and three rebounds and KJ Buffen added five points and six boards. Justin Brown had six points and two rebounds and Rongie Gordon contributed seven boards and two points.
The Blazers close out the regular season, Saturday, March 5, against Louisiana Tech at Bartow Arena in Birmingham. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 pm CT on Stadium.
