Hot Second Half pushes EasT CArolina Past UAB
Photo courtesy of UAB Athletics
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - February 11, 2025
UAB stumbled on the road Tuesday night. The explanation on what happened was clearcut. The Blazers couldn’t get defensive stops down the stretch and the result was a frustrating 82-75 loss to East Carolina at Minges Coliseum.
Most of the problems were created by ECU’s top two players – C.J. Walker and RJ Felton – and it was magnified in the second half. Walker finished with 29 points, hitting 10-of-15 from the field and 9-of-11 free throws, and Felton had 23 points with a season-high five 3-pointers. UAB had a 11-point lead early in the second half dissolve because the Blazers couldn’t get a defensive stop.
“We let them shoot 61 percent from the field, 51 percent from the 3 in the second half in their own building,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy told David Crane on the Blazer Sports Network from Learfield. “You’re not winning, you’re just not going to win (like that). It’s an issue we’ve had all year – our inability (to get stops). That’s why I play those zones because sometimes the zone can become a distraction. If I just said, ‘Hey, we’re going to play man-to-man against this team, they would have just taken us like they did.’ Our inability to guard has been a problem all year.”
He got to see firsthand what Walker and Felton have done often this season.
“The second half, you got to give ECU credit,” Kennedy said on his radio appearance. “I thought their primetime guys really stepped up. I told you C.J. Walker is a handful. He’s the most assertive. He’s probably the most athletic guy in this league in the front court. He goes for 29 points and just made hard plays. He's coming off of a game in San Antonio where he hit a game winner. He made some really hard plays. He beat us to 50-50 balls and his fight was a little tougher than ours. And then RJ Felton, the other guy. He made some hard ones.”
UAB (15-9 overall, 8-3 AAC) showed some early rust with eight days in between games and took a 36-31 lead into halftime. The Blazers extended the lead to 43-31 with 17:53 remaining. Tyren Moore’s fourth 3-pointer of the night capped off the 7-0 start to the second half. But the defensive problems were hard to overcome. The Blazers played well on the offensive end, for the most part in the second half. Yaxel Lendeborg had 18 of his team-high 22 points after halftime and the Blazers got to the free throw line, hitting 12-of-14 from the stripe after halftime. But they had to be nearly perfect because of the way ECU (14-11 overall, 6-6 AAC) was playing on offense.
The Blazers found a way to erase a five-point deficit late in the game on a putback by Efrem “Butta” Johnson and a second-chance 3-pointer by Alejandro Vasquez with 1:05 remaining. Vasquez’s long-range shot tied the game at 75. Felton countered with a layup on the other end and Vasquez lost the basketball while starting a drive to the basket. Vasquez grabbed Jordan Riley’s shorts after the ECU defender picked up the loose ball. After a video review, the officials called a flagrant 1 foul on Vasquez, giving Riley a pair of free throws and the Pirates retained possession with 28 seconds left. Riley made both and UAB couldn’t recover.
“As a basketball fan, especially a Blazer fan, you’re like ‘Man is that really worth ending the game?’” Kennedy said on his radio appearance. “Because that’s in essence what you’re doing, you’re ending the game if you make that call. But, to the letter of the law, he’s not making a play on the ball, he grabs the kid’s shorts, so the game is over.”
Lendeborg had his 16th double-double with 10 rebounds to go with his 22 points. He also added three assists, two blocks, a steal and a turnover. Moore had 16 points and Chris Coleman had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
UAB returns to Bartow Arena on Sunday for the Bartow Classic game against South Florida. Tip-off for the AAC matchup is at 3 p.m. CT.