Toney, Coleman Lead Blazers To Road Win Over South Florida

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - January 16, 2025

It came with a hiccup or two but UAB men’s basketball coach Andy Kennedy was in no mood to complain after his team completed a Florida sweep and won for the fourth consecutive game overall with a 92-83 win over South Florida at Yuengling Arena in Tampa.

“They end up shooting over 50 percent for the game and you give up 83, you're not real pleased with (that),” Kennedy said on his postgame radio appearance with David Crane on the Blazer Sports Network from Learfield. “But when you can come on the road, score 92 points and do it as efficiently as we did, at about 56 percent from the floor, it's something you'll certainly take and try to build on.”

UAB (11-7 overall, 4-1 AAC) never trailed, leading for more than 39 minutes, and carried a 47-27 advantage into halftime. Tony Toney, who has become one of the more efficient 3-point shooters in The American during conference play, was sensational in the first 20 minutes. He scored 14 first-half points on 5-of-6 shooting overall and 4-of-4 on 3-pointers. The 6-foot-2 senior from Huntsville is 15-of-27 on 3-pointers, which is 55.5 percent), in five conference games. 

“Tony got going,” said Kennedy, whose team also got 11 first half points from Christian Coleman. “I mean, he makes five 3s two games ago. He made three the last game. He makes four this game. He was 4-for-4 early, missed two pretty clean looks in the second half to the end of the streak, but he was the one that really settled us down.”

The second half was a struggle, even though the Blazers shot 51.7 percent from the field. The struggle came mainly on the defensive end with USF connecting on 61.3 percent from the field and connecting on 7-of-12 from the field. Sophomore point guard Jayden Reid was particularly bothersome with 22 of his 26 points coming in the second half. He was 6-of-10 overall from the field in the second half, hitting 4-of-6 3-pointers and making all six of his free throws.

But, even with the defensive struggles, the Blazers didn’t let the big lead completely slip away. UAB had an answer for every run that the Bulls (9-8 overall, 2-2 AAC) took at the lead. The final answer came with Tyren Moore hitting all six of his free throw attempts in the final minute.

Coleman led the way with 21 points, nine rebounds, including five offensive rebounds, three assists and a steal. He was 9-of-11 from the field and 3-of-6 from the line. Five other UAB players finished with double-digit points, including Toney (18 points) and Efrem “Butta” Johnson (14 points, six rebounds, three assists). Yaxel Lendeborg had 11 points, five rebounds, six assists, three steals and a blocked shot, Moore had 11 points, three rebounds and four assists and Alejandro Vasquez had 11 points, four rebounds and two assists.

The Blazers outrebounded USF, 40-20 overall and 16-7 on the offensive end. UAB also had 25 assists, which came up just short of the season-high 27 assists in a win over Auburn-Montgomery.

UAB returns home for a conference game against UTSA on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. at Bartow Arena.

“It's good to get back to Bartow,” Kennedy said. “Hopefully we've created enough momentum, we’ll have our students back. I hope that we can have some great energy in that building to protect our home court to try to continue on this winning streak.”