"Darth"
Vaden was, well, a force.
UAB's Robert Vaden scored 28 points - 22 of them in a torrid-shooting first half - to lead the Blazers to a 77-62 victory over Old Dominion Saturday at the Constant Center.
Vaden, a 6-foot-5 senior who mulled turning pro after last season, made 6 of 7 3-pointers in the first half on his way to spoiling the Monarchs' home opener in front of 7,870 spectators.
Vaden helped the Blazers, fresh off a victory over Arizona, surge ahead midway through the first half. UAB (4-0) never trailed after that and led by as many as 16 points.
"He's 6-5, 205 pounds, so he can get open,"
said ODU's Ben Finney, who spent most of the first half guarding Vaden. "We knew he was going to get his 20 points. We were just trying to contain him."
The Monarchs (1-1) couldn't, at least in the opening half.
Vaden opened the game witha jump shot and 11 minutes later had rained five 3-pointers and scored 19 points. His pull-up 3-pointer - his sixth of the half - from the right wing staked UAB to a 47-37 halftime lead.
The Blazers finished 11 of 21 from 3-point range and got 17 points from Lawrence Kinnard and 15 from Paul Delaney III.
Vaden's eight 3-pointers set a Constant Center record.
"The first half I was just trying to run the court, run our system and I was getting a lot of open looks,"
said Vaden, a transfer from Indiana University. "I got some transition looks, I got some off screens and also got some off broken plays, so it was just a little bit of everything."
Meanwhile, ODU (1-1) couldn't keep pace after making three of its first four 3-pointers. And despite a decisive rebounding edge, the Monarchs had trouble cracking the Blazers' inside double-teams of ODU forward Gerald Lee.
Lee finished with 10 points, but was limited to two field goals and didn't make his first basket until 5:32 remained in the second half.
Lee attempted just one first-half field goal and finished with two rebounds.
"It was hard to get the ball because they were crowding in the paint,"
Lee said. "I probably could've worked a little bit harder, but it was one of those nights. It was hard to get open."
Guard Marsharee Neely led ODU with a career-high 14 points, and his early baskets helped the Monarchs lead by as many as five in the first half.
But after making three of its first four 3-pointers, ODU missed 21 of 26 from behind the arc the rest of the way.
The Blazers went ahead for good by scoring on six straight trips late in the first half.
After halftime ODU pulled within eight, but the Monarchs were scoreless on six straight trips - missing six shots and committing two turnovers.
"They gave us our chances,"
ODU coach Blaine Taylor said. "Even though they widened the lead out a time or two we had chances in single digits to make it more of a game, and we really didn't capitalize when the opportunities came."
Vaden was quiet for much of the second half before draining a pair of 3-pointers during a 90-second span to seal it. His last launch put UAB ahead
67-55 with 6:12 left.
Said Taylor, "We got stung by a spectacular performance by a player tonight."
Notes: Old Dominion has two road games this week - Tuesday at Bucknell and Saturday at Marshall - before returning home Dec. 3 to play Richmond.... ODU's Jonathan Adams had nine points and 10 rebounds.... ODU held a 43-35 rebounding edge and had 20 offensive boards to UAB's seven.
