UAB Takes To The Road To Face High Point

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - November 15, 2024

The next step for Andy Kennedy’s UAB basketball team comes on the road against perhaps the best team that the Blazers have seen thus far.

Kennedy’s Blazers hopped on a plane headed for North Carolina on Thursday. The Blazers first test away from Bartow Arena comes on Friday night against High Point at the Qubein Center with tip-off scheduled for 6 p.m. CT.

High Point is 3-0 with each win coming at home. Last season, the Panthers were 15-2 at the Qubein Center with both losses coming in overtime. The second loss was an 80-79 setback to Longwood in the Big South Tournament semifinals. The only win thus far that didn’t come by double digits was an 80-71 win over Jackson State last Saturday.

The Panthers have been efficient on the offensive end, They are 14th in the country in field goal percentage (54 percent) and 12th in 3-point field goal percentage (44.8 percent). Four of the five starters average double figures in points, led by Big South Preseason Player of the Year Kezza Giffa. The 6-foot-2 senior guard averages 18.7 points per game and is second on the team with five 3-pointers. Chase Johnston, a 6-foot-3 senior, who played previously at Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast, is 12th in the country in total made 3-pointers (13) and 3-pointers made per game (4.33) and 13th in 3-point percentage (68.4). Point guard D’Maurian Williams, a former All-Big South Conference player at Gardner Webb, who played two seasons at Texas Tech, averages 15.7 points and 5.6 assists per game.

The lone High Point starter not in double figures in scoring is 7-foot sophomore Juslin Bodo Bodo, who is tied for 10th in the country in rebounds per game (11.7). He led the Big South Conference as a freshman with 9.6 rebounds per game.

Kennedy said after Sunday’s win over Southeastern Louisiana that his team needed to be more consistent to beat High Point.

“We've had moments,” said Kennedy after the win on Sunday. “Against Vermont, it wasn’t much, we had maybe 12,14 minutes of the 40 where I thought that was who we are. Then against Southern Miss, it was probably 30 to 32 of those minutes. And then tonight it was probably in the 20-minute range. I think we’ve got to put those segments of play together and play our best 40 minutes to have a chance to go and win on the road.”

It starts with Yaxel Lendeborg, who, despite becoming just the third player in UAB basketball history to open the season with three consecutive 20-point games, joining Kennedy and Carlos Williams, has not been as consistent as needed. He still ended the first week leading UAB in nearly every category except for rebounding, where he had one less rebound than Christian Coleman (29 to 28).

But the key on Friday is getting consistent play throughout the lineup and perhaps getting Efrem “Butta” Johnson and Alejandro Vasquez going on the offensive end. Johnson and Vasquez were a combined 3 of 24 from outside the 3-point line last week.