UAB puts together complete game in rout of PraIrie View A&M

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - December 7, 2024

For the UAB men’s basketball team, the best thing about Friday night’s 95-66 non-conference win over Prairie View A&M wasn’t simply the final score. No, the best thing about the win was the way that UAB put together the pieces of a blowout win over a team that was as overmatched on the floor as they were on paper.

UAB had seven double digit scorers and hit a season-high 10 3-pointers. The Blazers had 24 assists on 34 made field goals and outscored the Panthers, 28-2, on fastbreak points. UAB shot 72.4 percent from the field after halftime and 55.7 percent overall. Tyren Moore and Efrem “Butta” Johnson each made three 3-pointers and Yaxel Lendeborg didn’t miss a triple-double by too much after contributing 14 points, 17 rebounds, six assists, two steals, one blocked shot and five turnovers in 29 minutes.

All in all, the lopsided win didn’t erase the sting of a slower start to the season than expected. But it did add some confidence to UAB team that has struggled thus far, particularly on the offensive end.

“I'm always seeing the things that we could do better,” said UAB head coach Andy Kennedy. “And our group does not have the fire that I want them to have. Maybe it's there, maybe it's not, maybe I'm interpreting (it wrong). Maybe they show fire different than I want to see fire. I don't know. I have been a bit frustrated with a number of different things, but I thought in the second half, we played in a way that hopefully we can exhale. We go into final exams for a week before we host a really good Arkansas State team predicted to win their league. So it'll be a great week for us to get a lot of things done. And it's always better to go to work after a win in which, in the second half, you played dominant basketball.”

Kennedy shook up the lineup to start the game with Moore and Bradley Ezewiro starting for the first time at UAB. The move paid off at the start with the Blazers scoring the game’s first nine points but it also made a difference throughout.  Moore finished with 14 points, including three 3-pointers, and six assists and had a team-high of plus-31 in point differential when he was on the floor. Ezewiro had 11 points, six rebounds, a blocked shot, a steal and an assist.

Tony Toney led UAB with 15 points, hitting 6-of-9 from the field. Other players in double figures included Johnson (13 points, three assists), Christian Coleman (12 points, four rebounds, two blocked shots) and Alejandro Vasquez (10 points, two 3-pointers).

The Blazers don’t return to the court until December 15 for a non-conference game against Arkansas State at Bartow Arena.