Lendeborg leads blazers to win over UTSA

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - January 22, 2025

Style points don’t count in conference standings. So, even though it wasn’t always the prettiest evening of basketball, UAB head coach Andy Kennedy was in no mood to complain after the Blazers held off UTSA, 81-78, on a chilly Tuesday night at Bartow Arena.

The Blazers, who were coming off one of their best offensive performances of the season in a win at South Florida last Wednesday, scuffled around from the field on the offensive end against the Roadrunners. The Blazers hit 34.2 percent from the field in the first half and 42.6 percent overall. Kennedy said his team was 7-of-26 on what he calls “clean looks” and the Blazers were 3-of-17 on 3-pointers. They also had trouble stopping UTSA guard Primo Spears, who came in as the third leading scorer in The American and surpassed his season average with 27 points, and defending the 3-point line.

However, the problems didn’t keep UAB (12-7 overall, 5-1 AAC) from finding a way to win for the seventh time in eight games and the fifth time in a row.

“I saw, based on analytics, we were the fifth hottest team in the country,” Kennedy said. “I think that this Arctic air not only made it cold outside, but it may have taken down our temperature as it related the pace of play a notch or two. But nonetheless, these games have real value. They don't have value for my blood pressure. But they have real value in you're not playing your best, which we certainly were not, and you give a team life, a dangerous team that's capable of making shots. They hit 13 (3-pointers). They've been averaging around 14 made threes per game in their two conference wins, seven made in their three conference losses. We give them 13 and we were able to escape. So again, we'll take it because it goes in the right column. There's a lot of things that we can learn from this as we move forward.”

It was no surprise Yaxel Lendeborg played an integral role for the Blazers. The 6-foot-9 senior had his 11th double-double of the season and, once again, flirted with a triple-double. He finished with 24 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists, three blocked shots, a steal and four turnovers. He was 7-of-13 from the field and 10-of-11 from the free throw line.

His play helped UAB hold the lead for all but 14 seconds and never trail in the game. However, it took a clutch jumper by Tyren Moore, a pair of huge free throws by Alejandro Vasquez and a defensive stop by Christian Coleman to hold off the pesky Roadrunners down the stretch.

Moore’s bucket gave UAB a 79-74 lead with 1:15 remaining. Two buckets by Spears in less than a minute trimmed the UAB lead to 79-78 with 21.9 seconds remaining. UAB was able to whittle 10 seconds off the clock before Vasquez hit two free throws to give the Blazers the three-point advantage with 11.3 seconds on the clock. After a timeout, UTSA had a chance to tie the game with a 3-pointer. Damari Monsanto, the AAC leader in 3-pointers made per game, was the obvious choice to take the final shot for UTSA. The 6-foot-8 Coleman drew the assignment on the 6-foot-6 Monsanto.

“Coach was talking about switching (on screens),” Lendeborg said. “Chris said, ‘No, I got him.’ So, it's a big time to have somebody like that, who takes pride in getting that last stop that we need to win the game.”

Monsanto got a contested 3-pointer off from the left wing. But it was tipped by Coleman and fell far shot of the goal. Lendeborg fought for the rebound and UAB escaped with the win.

It was just part of a productive night for Coleman, who had 14 points, nine rebounds, four blocked shots and two assists. The only other UAB player in double figures was Efrem “Butta” Johnson, who had 11 points, four rebounds and three assists. UAB outrebounded UTSA, 47-32, overall and 17-12 on the offensive end. UAB led in points in the paint (38-26), second chance points (14-11) and bench points (19-12). The Blazers also were 26-of-30 from the free throw line, compared to UTSA finishing 11-of-14 on free throws.

The Blazers move on to a matchup with nationally-ranked Memphis on Sunday at noon at the FedExForum.