The old CUSA curtain is in the past for the UAB basketball team but AAC mid-game rim adjustments are all the rage.

A brief delay was required to make the necessary alterations — for a second straight day — and Daniel Ortiz, along with Efrem “Butta” Johnson, found the perfect angle to launch a barrage of long-range daggers.

The Blazers caught fire from range following the rim fiasco and surged to a 72-60 victory over Wichita State in an AAC tournament quarterfinal, Friday, March 15, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

“I’ve been in both of these situations, don’t let these good looks for you, I’ve been around the track a few times in my career,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy said. “I’ve been the first seed, the second seed and all seeds in between, but I knew that coming in Wichita State was going to have the advantage to start the game.”

“Why? Because they have been in here for two games,” he added. “They’ve had success coming off maybe their biggest win of the season in knocking off Memphis yesterday. They were going to come in confident and play really good basketball. We haven’t played for five days and today, this morning, is the first time we were actually in the arena. If we could stay competitive and try to win the physical battle, I felt the advantage would be ours in the last 8-10 minutes of the game.”

UAB (21-11, 12-6 AAC) has won at least one conference tournament game in all four seasons under Kennedy and would advance to its third straight league title game with a win over South Florida in the AAC semifinals.

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The Blazers shot 41.3 percent from the field and 33 percent on 3-pointers and were 14-of-22 from the charity stripe. The rebounding battle was a dead heat at 40 rebounds apiece and UAB held the Shockers to 39 percent overall and 25 percent from 3-point range.

“We’ve been pretty average in a lot of areas throughout the course of the season and we’re really good in two areas,” Kennedy said. “We’re really good off our offensive glass and get a large percentage (of points) from the free throw line.”

Wichita State’s Colby Rogers, who scored a season-high 29 points in the win at UAB two weeks ago, played all 40 minutes and was held to 10 points on 3-of-15 shooting from the field and 2-of-9 on 3-pointers.

“What a kid, man,” Kennedy said. “Just for the record, I voted for him all-conference. I think he’s an all-conference player. He’s probably one of the best three-level scorers in this league. He can really go get it for himself and, honestly, we just tried to keep his touches to a minimum and make him work off the ball.”

AAC Defensive Player of the Year Yaxel Lendeborg finished with 18 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks and tied Elijah Milsap for most single-season double-doubles (17) in UAB history. He also set a new single-season rebounding record (336) in passing Trey Jemison, who set the record last season.

Trailing 27-24 late in the first half, Lendeborg knocked down an open 3-pointer and ignited a 9-4 closing run to take a 33-31 lead into the halftime break.

“Yax kept us in the game, hence the cowboy hat,” Kennedy said. “He kept us in the game throughout by giving us second-chance opportunities and making timely shots for us.”

Daniel Ortiz had 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including a 4-of-7 performance from 3-point range, and added three rebounds and three assists. He drilled consecutive 3-pointers to cap a game-clinching 11-0 run late in the second half and added another triple with 1:04 remaining to push the final margin to double digits.

“I knew I was going to get opportunities and I had to be confident in shooting the ball,” Ortiz said. “It hasn’t been the year I wanted it to be but at this time of the year, you get in the mindset of forgetting all of that. It’s time to win and however you can advance is all that matters. You have to forget about everything that happened during the season, impact your team winning and that’s what I came out and did today.”

Eric Gaines stuffed his line with 10 points, four rebounds, seven assists, two blocks and five steals, while turning the ball over only twice in the game. Following a pair of free throws from Lendeborg, Gaines forced a steal off a bad pass and found Ortiz for the first of his back-to-back 3-pointers.

“The biggest play of the game was the fact that Eric, at the top of that 1-2, got his hand on the ball and Daniel picks it up and comes down in transition to shoot another three,” Kennedy said. “That was really our first two-possession-plus separation in the game. The other guys really had to step up and it started with Daniel stepping up huge for us down the stretch.”

The first half was a complete slugfest as neither team held more than a 3-point lead until Efrem “Butta” Johnson hit a short jumper to give the Blazers a 35-31 lead on the opening possession of the second half.

Wichita State managed to take a 54-52 lead during an almost two-minute scoring drought by UAB but Johnson was fouled on a made 3-pointer, missing the and-1 opportunity, and swung momentum back to UAB, which outscored the Shockers 20-6 in the final in the final 6:32 of the game.

“We’re always trying to put pressure on the paint, play inside out, a little bit of old school basketball, but that’s how we’re built,” Kennedy said. “We just wanted to stay aggressive, hoping down the stretch that tired legs would give us an angle, and then we had to finish some plays inside.”

Christian Coleman received his first start since a December loss at Arkansas State and finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and two blocks. Efrem “Butta” Johnson had 11 points and Javian Davis and Tony Toney contributed two points each while combining for seven rebounds.

“Chris had been playing very well down the stretch,” Kennedy said. “You’re trying to put the best pieces out there, systematically, to give your team the best chance to win. Chris was playing good basketball and the matchup was one in which it was not going to be problematic for us.”

The Blazers advance to face top-seeded and regular-season champion South Florida in an AAC tournament semifinal, Saturday, March 16, at Dickies Arena. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. CT on ESPN2.