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Butler-UAB Preview

Dec 22, 2009 - 5:25 AM By ALAN FERGUSON STATS Writer

Butler (8-3) at UAB (10-1), 8:00 p.m. EDT

Butler has definitely not shied away from top competition so far this season, and the past two weeks have proved one of the team's most difficult stretches.

That continues for the 20th-ranked Bulldogs in Tuesday night's nonconference finale, a trip to face an Alabama-Birmingham team that's trying to win its 10th straight.

Butler (8-3) has faced four ranked teams already this season and earned its first win in those games on Dec. 12, 74-66 against then-No. 13 Ohio State. After facing back-to-back Top 25 opponents, the Bulldogs had to welcome perennially daunting Xavier to Hinkle Fieldhouse on Saturday, and they needed a referee's stopwatch to seal a 69-68 victory.

Gordon Hayward made a layup with 1.2 seconds left, but officials ruled the clock had stopped inadvertently for 1.3 seconds during Butler's final possession.

After measuring the time manually during a review that lasted more than five minutes, they counted Hayward's basket but decided there was nothing left for a Musketeers' response.

"It's a hard way for a great game to be decided, there's no doubt about it," coach Brad Stevens told the school's official Web site.

Stevens has led his program to an 11-2 mark in nonconference road games in three seasons, but the Bulldogs will face an opponent that's won 30 in a row at home outside of league play dating back to Nov. 29, 2005.

Despite losing their top four scorers from last season, the Blazers (10-1), who received 29 votes in the latest AP poll, have thrived behind newcomer Elijah Millsap. The junior guard, who previously played at Louisiana-Lafayette, is averaging a team-leading 15.8 points and 10.4 rebounds.

The team's top returning scorer, senior forward Howard Crawford, has chipped in 13.6 points per game, but the Blazers are on the verge of their longest win streak in four seasons thanks to one of the best defenses in the country.

In its fourth season under former Indiana coach Mike Davis, UAB is holding opponents to 57.5 points per game on 39.0 percent shooting. The past three opponents, including then-No. 25 Cincinnati, haven't cracked 55 points on the Blazers, who haven't won 10 in a row since Dec. 19, 2005-Jan. 21, 2006.

Davis, however, knows his team has a long way to go, especially on offense where UAB has averaged 68.8 points in four games this month.

"We are playing defense pretty good, so we'll continue to play our defense the way we need to," he said. "I think we have a chance to be a pretty good team. We just need to put everything together. ... We just need to make sure we continue to get better every day."

Davis' team will likely need to limit Hayward, who has scored 20-plus points in three consecutive games. The sophomore swingman is averaging a team-leading 17.4 points and 8.7 rebounds, but it was the team's second-leading scorer, Shelvin Mack, that burned the Blazers in last season's meeting.

Mack had a career high-tying 22 points and a career-best five 3-pointers to help the Bulldogs hold off UAB 72-68 at home. The sophomore guard, averaging 14.5 points this season, has scored in double figures in 10 straight contests.

The Blazers won the first meeting between the schools and the previous game in Birmingham, 87-58 on Dec. 4, 1980.