Saturday, November 22nd, 4:00 p.m. (et)

FACTS & STATS: Site: Ted Constant Convocation Center,(8,424) -- Norfolk, Virginia. Television: CSN. Home Record: UAB 0-0, ODU 0-0. Away Record: UAB 2-0, ODU 1-0. Neutral Record: UAB 1-0, ODU 0-0. Conference Record: UAB 0-0, ODU 0-0. Series Record: UAB leads 16-9.

GAME NOTES: The UAB Blazers take a break from the NIT Season Tip-Off as the team travels to Norfolk, Virginia to take on the Old Dominion Monarchs in non- conference action. Today's game will be the fourth consecutive on the road for the Blazers, who are 3-0 on the young season. After beating Troy to open matters, UAB traveled to Tucson to take part in the 2008 NIT Season Tip-Off this past Monday. The Blazers defeated Santa Clara, 64-61, to advance to the West Region Championship game against tournament host Arizona. In that clash, guard Paul Delaney III hit a free throw with eight seconds remaining to lift the Blazers over the Wildcats 72-71. The NIT Tip-off resumes next Wednesday at Madison Square Garden with UAB taking on nationally-ranked Oklahoma in the semifinals with the winner advancing to the championship game on Friday. UAB is one win away from reaching the 600-win mark. The Monarchs opened up the 2008-09 campaign with a thrilling 69-68 victory over the Charlotte 49ers on the road. With the Monarchs trailing by two points, Jonathan Adams drained a three-pointer with only 5.5 seconds left to ensure the win for ODU. After hosting UAB, the Monarchs go right back on the road for their next two games against Bucknell and Marshall. UAB won the last meeting between these two schools last season in Birmingham by a score of 73-57. As for the all-time series, the Blazers have won 16 of the 25 games played between the teams.

In the game against Arizona, the Blazers took a 41-31 lead into halftime as they finished the last five minutes of the first half on a 9-2 run. UAB opened the second half similar to how they ended the first with a 6-2 run giving the Blazers their largest lead of the game at 47-33. The team could not hold down Arizona as the Wildcats responded with a run of their own to tie the game at 71 with 25 seconds remaining. Just as the game appeared to be heading to overtime, Arizona was called for an intentional foul which set up Delaney's game-winning free throw. The Blazers shot 50 percent from the field in the first half but only 39.3 percent in the second, which enabled the Wildcats to get back in the game. Delaney's game-winning free throw was just the fifth made in 12 tries for the Blazers on the night. Delaney finished the night with 10 points. Robert Vaden led the Blazers with 20 points, hitting 4-of-8 shots from behind the arc and Lawrence Kinnard tallied 16 points and eight rebounds. Terrence Roderick came off the bench to contribute 12 points and six boards. Through the first three games, the Blazers are averaging 74.3 ppg and just 10 turnovers per outing. UAB, however, has been outrebounded by 2.7 ppg. Delaney leads the Blazers in scoring with 18.0 ppg and Kinnard is the leading rebounder with nine per game to go along with 14.7 ppg.

After leading for most of the game, the Monarchs fell behind with under six- and-a-half minutes left in the game and did not reclaim the lead until Adams' three-pointer with just over five seconds remaining. Old Dominion dominated the 49ers on the boards, outrebounding them by 16. Of the Monarchs' 39 boards, 24 came from the trio of Gerald Lee (nine), Keyon Carter (eight) and Ben Finney (seven). Lee, Finney and Darius James each scored 14 points in the win as the Monarchs's shot 43.1 percent from the floor but 50 percent from three- point land, including 60 percent in the first half. ODU held Charlotte to just 34.6 percent from the field on 9-of-26 shooting in the first half but could not keep the pressure on as the 49ers shot 50 percent in the second half. Luckily for the Monarchs, Charlotte was only 4-of-14 from three-point range (.286). One area of concern for ODU was that the team had 18 turnovers in the game compared to just 10 for the Niners.

ODU may have gotten some of the rust off in its game against Charlotte and will have to play better if it plans on beating a very good UAB squad today. The Blazers are the more experienced team and are on a nice little run in the month of November, which should make the Monarchs' home opener a disappointing one.

Predicted Outcome

UAB 71, Old Dominion 65