SMU’s Bamba Fall keeps the ball alive under the basket against UAB on Saturday. (Lindsey Perkins)

The SMU men’s basketball team dropped its fourth conference game in a row on Saturday night. SMU (8-17, 2-10) fell to the UAB Blazers (19-8, 9-3) by a final score of 73-59.

Although the Mustangs eventually lost the game by a double-digit score, UAB hardly dominated the entire contest. In the first half, the Mustangs were able to limit fouls and turnovers while holding UAB down on the defensive end.

This, coupled with the scoring of senior guard Jon Killen and junior center Bamba Fall, pushed SMU out in front of UAB at the half. SMU went into halftime with a 32-29 lead. Both Killen and Fall went 3-8 from the field, giving them nine and eight points, respectively.

The second half of play was a different story, because the Blazers’ Robert Vaden took over the game. After going 1-6 from the field in the first half, Vaden went 7-12 from behind the arc in the second half alone.

This shooting performance was a UAB best for three pointers made (8) and lifted the Blazers from their first-half woes. Vaden finished with 24 points all from long-distance shots.

While it is impossible to predict a shooting performance of this magnitude, SMU head basketball coach Matt Doherty had some idea that Vaden was going to take shots. “I knew in the second half they were going to try and get Vaden going. We lost him a couple times in the zone, and other times he just jacked it up and it went in,” said Doherty on Vaden’s shooting performance.

Killen tried his best to stop the Blazers’ surge by knocking down some threes of his own. However, Killen’s 12 second-half points and 21 total points were not enough to lift the Mustangs to victory.

Fall was the only other SMU player who finished in double figures for the game. He scored 14 points while adding nine rebounds.

While the victory may dishearten some, Doherty had a different take on the game. “I was proud of our guys,” Doherty commented. “To be in [winning] position deep into the second half [makes] me very proud of our team.”

The Mustangs play again on Wednesday at East Carolina at 6 p.m. With a win, the Mustangs would match their conference win total from the 2006-07 season.