UAB Drops Opener To Vermont - Still Seeking To Find Edge

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - November 5, 2024

Vermont didn’t necessarily beat UAB on Monday night by doing what the Catamounts like to do. Instead, UAB head coach Andy Kennedy said, Vermont pulled out the 67-62 season-opening win at Bartow Arena by beating the Blazers at their own game.

“I thought they honestly, we said coming in, Vermont is pretty good at what they do, we're pretty good at what we do,” Kennedy said. “I said we got to be better at what we do, than they are at what they do. It's a long way to say best version of self.  But I thought they were better at what we do. I thought they were attacking us through contact, I thought they lived in the paint and I thought they were making more plays. We knew coming in (Shamir) Bogues, preseason player of the year in their league, and man, he does what you want, the preseason player of the year to do. You come in and you establish who's the man.”

Add all of that up and you have a good start on how a promising season began with a disappointing loss. It also doesn’t take long to peruse the box score to see that outside shooting was a huge factor in the loss. UAB failed to make a 3-pointer in a game for the first time since failing to do so in back-to-back games in January of 2013. UAB missed all 23 3-point attempts in a loss at UCF on Jan. 9, 2013 and was 0-of-13 in a home loss to Memphis three days later. On Monday, UAB missed all 10 of its 3-point attempts with Efrem “Butta” Johnson and Alejandro Vasquez missing a combined eight 3-pointers and Tyren Moore, who was added to the roster to be an outside threat, failing to take a long-range shot.

On the other side, Vermont was 10-of-27 on 3-pointers, including a pair that banked in off the backboard and two logo 3-pointers that came at the end of the shot clock. That’s a 30-point advantage for Vermont on shots taken outside the arc.

Two of those UAB misses came in the final minute with Vermont clinging to a 62-60 lead after TJ Hurley’s physical drive to the basket provided the go-ahead points. During a timeout, Kennedy called a play that got Johnson open in the corner. He missed the shot but Vasquez fought for the rebound and got the ball back to Johnson, who was once again wide open, in the same corner. Johnson’s second shot missed and Vermont got the rebound.

“Just one of those nights,” Kennedy said. “It’s unfortunate, very unfortunate.”

UAB did very little well in a first half that concluded with Vermont holding a 38-24 lead. In a way, Kennedy saw it coming.

“When you get close to the season, you would hope that coming into the game, that you're really on the laser's edge, and I haven't felt that with this group,” Kennedy said. “I haven't felt it and today was the worst possible scenario for us, you play from behind against it's a team that's really good in what they do, and then your inability (to shoot).  I thought our rhythm was pretty strong, we came up pretty strong second, but I thought our inability to execute and then step up and make a shot.”

UAB got quickly back in the second half, largely thanks to Yaxel Lendeborg taking over on the offensive end. His second half numbers included 19 points, 12 rebounds, two blocked shots and two steals. It took UAB nearly 11 minutes to pull even, which the Blazers did on a layup by Lendeborg. Vermont responded with a back-to-back 3-point bank shots by Ileri Ayo-Faleye . UAB tied the game with 5:35 left on a fastbreak layup by Lendeborg but Vermont quickly countered with a 3-pointer from TJ Long.

The last tied score came with Christian Coleman’s three-point play with 1:23 remaining. That set up TJ Hurley’s go-ahead layup.