Darius Hannah had been waiting for this moment his whole life.

Tied with 17 seconds left in overtime, Bradley and Alabama-Birmingham were engaged in a game that felt more like March than the first game of the season in early November.

The Braves lost a 16-point halftime lead, survived into an extra period and walked out of the Bartow Center with a 73-71 season-opening victory after Hannah received a pass from Braves guard Connor Hickman and flew in for a game-winning floater with 2.8 seconds on the clock.

BOX SCORE: Bradley 73, UAB 71 (OT) | Roster news: Bradley reserve leaves team

“You just got to make shots and big plays down the stretch," Bradley coach Brian Wardle said, "and we were able to do that."

UAB brought pressure around the arc that frustrated the Braves all of the second half, but that hurt the Blazers on that play. Hannah caught the ball with no one around him and nearly flew in for a slam, but elected for the floating shot at the last second.

The game-winner was his first since high school.

“​​The play was designed for me to make a read for the opposite side, but take the shot if I had it; I normally dunk it but I took off pretty far,” Hannah laughed. "So I decided to rely on my touch with the basketball.”

Said Wardle: “It was a play we ran earlier in the half, and it was wide open and I was hoping it would be open again. We just trusted our eyes and what we saw earlier and the guys executed perfectly."

'We can come back in any game'

Not only did the Braves have to trust their eyes, they had to test their guts. UAB, runners-up in the 2023 NIT, provided a strong opening opponent for the Braves over 600 miles away from Peoria on the opening night of the college basketball season.

Wardle wanted two things from his team on Monday night and wrote them both on the whiteboard in Bradley’s locker room: Pride and poise.

The Braves showed both down the stretch and, quite literally, shot down the Blazers’ excitement from a significant second-half comeback in crunch time with 3-pointers from Hickman and graduate forward Malevy Leons to make it 61-59 UAB with 4:41 to go.

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“That's what we did,” Leons said. “They made a run there at home, it was loud in there but I feel like we all stayed connected, we just stayed together. If we all put our heads down and work for a common goal, we can come back in any game with our backs against the wall."

Having seen the court in many high-leverage situations last year, Braves senior point guard Duke Deen wasn’t afraid to take a big shot. He nailed a tricky 3-pointer to give a 62-61 lead back to Bradley with 2:25 to go.

“If you play for me and you play defense and talk, you pretty much get the green light on offense,” Wardle said. “Duke was talking and really guarding as tough as he could tonight.”

Bradley got a dunk from Leons to go up 64-62 with 33 seconds remaining before UAB’s Javian Davis countered with one of his own on the next possession. Deen, who had made multiple off-balance 3-pointers earlier in the night, took another deep ball as time expired, but it clanged off the rim to force overtime.

How UAB got back into it

Bradley played a nearly flawless first half, in which it spaced the floor well, defended the paint and took all the life out of the UAB crowd. A 14-1 run, capped by back-to-back dunks from Leons, gave BU a 29-12 lead with 5:35 left before the break. Hannah scored 10 in the first half and BU made six 3-pointers overall.

UAB trailed 40-24 before the Blazers lit their fire with defense heavy on trapping and double-teaming. That fire eventually turned into an inferno when UAB went on a 35-8 push to take a 59-48 lead with just under seven minutes to play.

“We knew they were going to get after us and try to muddy the game up, probably a little bit and muck it up,” Wardle said. “We talked about being strong with the ball and pass faking and making good sound decisions offensively. We just didn't do it.”

The paint was an area of strength for the Braves in the first half with Leons being a wizard on both ends. He nearly put up a double-double before halftime with 11 points, eight rebounds and numerous strong plays on defense near the rim.

That changed completely after the intermission. UAB pounded the paint and got offensive rebounds, dunks, free throws and second-chance points. Many of those points came off 22 offensive rebounds, an area where the Blazers finished in the top 10 in the nation last year.

“We're not as strong and as thick as we were last year, but we can get better rebounding the ball," Wardle said. "We can get Darius rebounding the ball better, I think everybody can start rebounding the ball a little bit better so we're going to work on that.”

Bradley could only muster one field goal — a Deen 3-pointer — in the first 13 minutes of the second half. Meanwhile, UAB took their first lead of the game at 49-48 after a pair of free throws from Tony Toney with 9:27 to go.

“We had some really good moments of execution, we had some bad moments of execution,” Wardle said. “We got a little tentative at times in the second half. Give them a lot of credit though, they played desperate in the second half and really, really hard.”

When all seemed to be going against the Braves though, they stepped with a veteran effort. In fact, they simulated nearly the exact situation they were in on Monday in practice in their "65-65 drill," where they were tied at 65 with two minutes left to play.

“Our team could have folded in that environment and we did not,” Wardle said. “We came back.”

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Malevy Leons big in the clutch moments

Leons led Bradley in the first half on both ends. The graduate scored seemingly at will and joined forces with Hannah and senior guard/forward Christian Davis in shutting down the Blazers to 10-of-37 shooting before intermission.

However, Bradley struggled to get its preseason first-team all-MVC selection going in the second half. UAB’s halfcourt pressure shut down passing lanes to the BU big man, and fast break opportunities rendered him unable to make as big of an impact on defense.

However, the hosts couldn’t hold down Leons all night. With tired legs, he calmly dropped in a pair of free throws to give the Braves a one-point advantage in overtime, then did so again to build the Braves’ cushion to 71-68 with 53 seconds left in overtime.

UAB tied the game at 71-71 after a three-point play from Davis, who led the Blazers with 20 points and 16 rebounds, before Hannah’s heroic shot.

Every big play down the stretch seemed to involve the veteran forward Leons, including a deep ball to help awaken the Braves and cut the UAB lead to 61-59 with 4:41 left, a steal that led to Deen’s go-ahead 3-pointer in transition, and the slam to give Bradley a brief lead near the end of regulation.

Leons led the Braves with 24 points and 14 rebounds while Deen chipped in 15 points, four rebounds and four assists. Hannah also finished in double figures with 14 points, six rebounds and five assists.

“It's a lot of highs and lows and honestly, I just enjoyed it,” Leons said. “It’s fun to be back on the court and play basketball.”

Tale of two halves in numbers

Bradley’s season-opener provided some interesting numbers in the stat sheet. The Braves shot 17-of-31 in (55 percent) in the first half, compared to UAB’s 10-of-37 (27 percent) mark. In the second half, the Braves shot made just 25 percent of their shots from the field while the Blazers shot at a 46 percent clip.

UAB turned 17 second-half turnovers from Bradley into 14 points, but struggled from behind the arc (3-19) and from the free-throw line (18-29). The Braves used a hot start from 3-point land in the first half to shoot 10-30 from deep and ended the contest going 13-for-16 from the charity stripe.

Next up for the Braves is another stiff test, this time at home against Mountain West foe Utah State, who made the NCAA Tournament and beat Bradley 84-62 in Utah last year. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

“​​It’s one game, win or lose, it's just one game,” Wardle said about Monday’s roller-coaster win. “I’m proud of them but we got to refocus and get better for Saturday night.”

Bravely speaking

The Braves lost a part of their roster earlier on Monday, with junior guard and Nevada transfer Trey Pettigrew leaving the team. Pettigrew scored two points in Bradley’s 74-61 exhibition win over St. Ambrose on Wednesday. … The NCAA’s NET rankings have not come out yet this season, but Bradley’s win over UAB may give them a Quad 2 victory. … BU won its third true road opener under Brian Wardle and its first since a 61-59 win at Toledo in 2020. … Christian Davis did not make a field goal in Bradley’s win, but contributed four points, eight rebounds, three blocks, two assists and two steals.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: College basketball: Bradley beats UAB in OT of season-opener