UAH advances with 106-99 thriller over Barry

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Turning in the best offensive performance in the NCAA tournament in program history, the seventh-seeded University of Alabama in Huntsville men’s basketball team upset No. 2 seed Barry by a 106-99 score on Saturday afternoon at the Rick Case Arena on the campus of Nova Southeastern in the opening game of the 2022 NCAA South Regional. UAH improves to 23-10 with its eighth straight win, while Barry ends the year at 20-9.

CJ Williamson was in a word stunning in the contest, going 12-for-17 to score a UAH NCAA tournament record 38 points, and he also grabbed a team-high seven boards.

Four others scored in double figures including Max Shulman who scored 16 despite missing much of the opening minutes of the second half with an injury, nailing a key 3-pointer on his second offensive possession returning from the medical area.

Dalton Dodd also scored 16 including three big 3-pointers, while Chaney Johnson had 14 and Luke Burnett poured in 13.

The Chargers trailed by as many as 11 in the opening half as Barry took a 25-14 lead at the 12:28 mark of the period, but a Burnett triple and an old-fashioned 3-point play from Johnson spurned what would be a 16-6 run for UAH that narrowed the gap to just one 31-30 by the time the clock hit 9:17.

Barry would eventually go back up by seven and looked to be surging again later in the half, but Williamson blocked a dunk attempt and Johnson completed another and-1 to tie the contest, and back-to-back buckets from Williamson would give the Chargers their first lead of the night at 48-42 with 1:53 remaining in the period.

Burnett then hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the seventh seed a 53-50 lead at the halftime break.

The Bucs quickly erased the deficit and went up by six early in the second half before Shulman was forced to leave the game, and though a couple big 3s from Dodd and Burnett briefly gave the Chargers a 67-62 advantage at the 14:05 mark, an 18-5 run for Barry over the next six minutes gave the second seed an 80-72 lead with 7:56 remaining in the contest.

With Barry leading by that same eight-point margin and Shulman making his return to the game, a layup from Dodd followed by a dramatic 3 from Shulman began a 10-0 run that was capped by a Jack Kostel 3-pointer and a Burnett bucket to put UAH up 84-82. There would then be a pair of ties in the game, but the Chargers would hold the Bucs without a field goal for more than four minutes while building up a nine-point lead, going in front 96-87 with just over a minute left.

A four-point play for Barry would allow it to close the gap to just four late, but the deficit was too much to overcome as UAH would hold on for the victory.

For the contest, UAH shot 56.3 percent including going 13-for-28 from 3-point land, and the team held Barry to a shooting mark of 47.2 percent – though the Bucs did connect on 17 treys.

Barry won the rebounding battle by a 38-32 margin but only enjoyed a slim 10-9 edge in second-chance points, and the Chargers collected 12 steals and forced Barry into 15 total turnovers to hold a significant 21-11 margin in points off miscues.