Daniel Ortiz had just dropped in a third consecutive triple for the UAB basketball team when everything went awry.

A quick basket from the opposition was followed by two straight turnovers and a missed shot from the Blazers, and then an offensive rebound resulted in a dagger 3-pointer that halved a 20-point advantage in less than three minutes.

The Blazers came out in a fury, building a substantial first-half lead, but withered late as they allowed a double-digit rally in a 76-70 loss to Charlotte, Tuesday, Jan. 23, at Halton Arena in Charlotte.

“Our guys could not have come out of the gate better,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy said. “We threw the first punch and the second punch. We made the shots and the changing of defenses was not allowing them a rhythm-type offense. In the second half, they just big-boy’d us, quite frankly. We just got destroyed because everything was downhill at the rim and we could not stay in front and get stops.”

UAB (12-7, 4-2 AAC) entered the game at 154 in the NCAA NET rankings and drops a Quad-2 opportunity against Charlotte (102).

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The Blazers shot 53.2 percent overall — they were 9-of-20 in the second half after starting the game 14-of-27 from the field — and were 5-of-13 on 3-pointers and 15-of-22 at the free-throw line. UAB allowed the 49ers to shoot 52.1 percent overall and 63.6 percent in the second half while hitting 4-of-5 shots from 3-point range and 16-of-22 on free throws.

“There’s nothing that I look back at that we didn’t cover this area to the extent that we needed to do,” Kennedy said. “It was just simply ‘me versus you’ and ‘I’m going to get down here at this rim.’”

Alejandro Vasquez finished with a team-high 13 points, including four rebounds, and scored six points during a 12-3 opening run by the Blazers. In the second half, Vasquez scored five straight points to push the UAB lead to 44-36 after the 49ers trimmed the advantage to three points on an 8-1 run to open the period.

Yaxel Lendeborg had 11 points and five rebounds and jumpstarted a 19-4 run that saw the Blazers build its largest lead at 35-15 with 5:49 remaining in the first half. Tony Toney dropped consecutive triples, followed by an Ortiz 3-pointer, to cap the run before Charlotte closed out the half with a 13-3 surge to cut the UAB advantage to 38-28 entering the break.

“We had it where we wanted to have it and they spurted on us at the end of the half,” Kennedy said. “The second half started blow-for-blow and, before you know it, it was back to a one-possession game.”

Lendeborg and Will Shaver combined for a 4-0 spurt to put the Blazers on top 50-42 with 14:25 remaining but Charlotte used a 6-0 and 9-4 run to take its first lead, 57-55, and retained its advantage with an 8-1 run to secure a 65-58 lead with a little more than five minutes left in the game.

Eric Gaines, who finished with 10 points, two rebounds, four assists and two steals, ignited a late run that saw Efrem “Butta” Johnson hit his first shot of the game on a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to two points inside the final minute. Charlotte went 4-for-4 at the line in the last 30 seconds to seal the comeback win.

“We could not string together stops,” Kennedy said. “They had a stretch where they may have scored six or seven consecutive times and they were having their way with us in the paint.”

Javian Davis had nine points, five rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal, followed by Toney with eight points and two boards. Ortiz had seven points and Christian Coleman, Will Shaver and Johnson all had four points.

The Blazers return home to face rival and No. 19 Memphis in the 15th Annual Bartow Classic, Sunday, Jan. 28, at Bartow Arena. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. CT on ESPN.