Surging Blazers pick up key AAC Road Win At FAU

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - January 12, 2025

The five-day trip to the Florida beaches are meant for rest, relaxation and enjoyment for the UAB basketball team. However, the way the Blazers started the trip, with an 81-76 American Athletic Conference victory at FAU, will certainly improve their mood.

“Huge win for my group,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy said during his postgame chat with David Crane on the Blazer Sports Network from Learfield. “It'll make these next three days in Florida a much more enjoyable thing.”

The Blazers (10-7 overall, 3-1 AAC) led for nearly 30 minutes in the game but found themselves trailing by a point, 75-74, with 2:58 left. UAB held FAU (9-8 overall, 2-2 AAC) without a field goal from that point forward, outscoring the Owls, 7-1. It began with two free throws by Christian Coleman with 2:20 remaining. Alejandro Vasquez hit a pair of free throws with 1:57 left to give UAB a 77-75 lead and scored on a fastbreak layup, after a feed from Yaxel Lendeborg, to build the advantage to four points with 46 seconds remaining. FAU’s Kaleb Glenn hit one of two free throws with 42 seconds left to trim the deficit to three points before Christian Coleman closed the scoring with a layup. FAU missed all nine of its field goal attempts in the final three minutes.

“It was a game of runs, 6-0, 8-0, back and forth, back and forth,” said Kennedy, whose team’s biggest lead came at 60-48 with 13:11 remaining. “We told our group at the Under-4 (minute media timeout), that this game was going to come down to execution offensively and defensively, and that's where we excelled.”

As usual, Lendeborg had a big hand in the victory for the Blazers. Once again, Lendeborg flirted with a triple-double before finishing with 22 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, two blocked shots and a steal. He was 10-of-13 from the field, made one of two from 3-point and was 1-of-3 from the free throw line. In the second half, he had 13 points, four rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal. He also had all four of his turnovers after halftime.

“Yax has four of our six (turnovers in the second half), because many times he's just (too unselfish),” Kennedy said. “Again, he shoots (just)13 balls. He had a couple (turnovers) when he's trying to pass when he should shoot. But I thought he made huge plays for us down the stretch. Obviously, every trip down, we're trying to go through Yax as we have been the majority of the season, and he's getting more comfortable in that role. I thought he and Chris Coleman at the end, it was basically a two-on-two game. Their two bigs against our two bigs. Thankfully, our guys made plays.”

Coleman finished with 15 points, nine rebounds, including five offensive rebounds, two steals, one assist and one turnover. Vasquez scored nine of his 14 points in the second half, including hitting all five of his free throws. Ja’Borri McGhee had 12 points, two rebounds, two assists, a steal and no turnovers and Tony Toney had 11 points with three 3-pointers.

UAB concludes its Florida trip on Wednesday night with an AAC game at South Florida (9-7 overall, 2-1 AAC).