Coming off a 44 point victory over Tennessee Temple in the season opener, MTSU men’s basketball looked to keep winning Wednesday night against Alabama Birmingham but came just short losing 76-71.

“(Aaron) Johnson, going one for six, dominated the game,” MTSU coach Kermit Davis said of UAB’s senior point guard. “He made all the right decisions. He’s 5’9”, he doesn’t make many baskets outside of 15 feet and he dominates the game.”

Johnson’s 10 assists led a UAB charge that did two important things better than the Blue Raiders, protecting the ball and ball movement.

Middle Tennessee finished the game with only six assists as a team while turning the ball over 19 times. However, it wasn’t all bad news for the Raiders.

Kyle Hunt and J.T. Sulton both grabbed nine boards for Middle as they out rebounded UAB 47 to 30. The team also shot and impressive 82.8 percent from the line, an improvement from 62.5% in the opener.

The team also fought well down the stretch, losing by 5 after trailing by 16 with 9:15 remaining in the game.

MTSU's rally got going when the teams offense finally found a spark late in the game. It looked as though sophomore Jason Jones would cap of an impressive comeback when he scored eight points in just over a minute with two minutes left in the game.

“Knowing that my team was playing aggressive on the defensive end, I just had to come in with that same aggression,” Jones said.

The only thing that stopped MTSU from comeback back was that they kept putting UAB at the free throw line in a stretch of the game when they just could not afford to.

“It was one of those games where it was exciting,” UAB head coach Mike Davis said. “We had a situation where they probably could have made a comeback and won the basketball game. You can tell a coach by his team, they got down and came back.”

One area of the game that could have helped MTSU made that comeback was the three point game, and today they just weren’t falling. The Raiders finished only three of 17 from beyond the arc, not hitting one at all until Freshman Kerry Hammonds knocked one down with 11:03 remaining in the game.

“They just missed a couple and I think it got to them a bit,” Davis said.

UAB’s coach praised the play of his two seniors, Jamarr Sanders and Aaron Johnson, for playing well throughout the game and setting an example for the younger players. However, coach Kermit Davis couldn’t share the same sentiment following the loss.

 “Our returning guys have to play better,” Davis said. “Some of our new guys came in and tried to compete.”

MTSU senior James Washington agreed with his coach’s sentiments.

“He is expecting a lot out of us,” Washington said. “Today we just didn’t bring it.”

MTSU will play their next three games Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Global Sports Hoops Showcase in Auburn, Alabama.