Memphis Bullies Blazers In Physical Showdown

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - March 2, 2025

Andy Kennedy had a simple explanation about what looked like a complex matter on Sunday afternoon at Bartow Arena. He shared that explanation in the press conference following UAB’s 88-81 American Athletic Conference loss to Memphis.

“I think the game of basketball is like the game of life, it comes down to one thing, execution,” Kennedy said after his team dropped its second game this season to first place Memphis. “Everybody's got great ideas, great theories. Who can execute (them)? And tonight, Memphis was the better executing team.”

It’s easy to get caught up in numbers and the foul trouble encountered by UAB star Yaxel Lendeborg. Those things are certainly important. But the most important thing is that Memphis found a way to win.

“I thought we had a good (officiating) crew doing the game and the game was frenetic, man, it was very, very physical,” Kennedy said. “Literally, they did, I guess, for a two or three minute stretch, they would call a foul almost every trip. Then they kind of backed off that a little bit. So the game was physical, it was frenetic, it was athletic, it was fast. I just think it came down to execution and Memphis did a better job of executing and that's both offensively and defensively. I think their pressure bothered us. Now all of a sudden we've got our two-guard initiating offense as opposed to our point.”

It was also too much PJ Haggerty in the second half – he scored 17 of his 25 points after halftime – and no defensive answer for Dain Dainja. The 6-foot-9 Dainja had 16 points and 17 rebounds. But it was also five 3-pointers from Colby Rogers and some key plays from Nicholas Jourdain.

A big part of that was the extended absence of Lendeborg, who drew three fouls in the first half and played less than 25 minutes in the game. He finished with 10 points and six rebounds but the stat line doesn’t tell the full story of his time on the bench.

“He's our stabilizing force,” Kennedy said of Lendeborg. “They were really pressuring our guards. Ja’Borri (McGhee) had a good game. He's gonna have some turnovers, but I think he was able to step up and make some shots for us and physically give us a presence with that ball. But when we run a lot of stuff, we run it through Yax. I was trying to get the ball out of our guard's hands to take some pressure off of him, run offense through Yax and let him facilitate. But tonight, it was just a tough night for him to have a tough night.”

McGhee finished with 22 points, including 17 in the second half. All four of his 3-pointers came after halftime and he also finished with five assists. His production helped UAB maintain the lead for a good portion of the second half. But Haggerty took over in the final 10 minutes and Memphis built a lead that stretched to as many as seven points.

UAB fought back and eventually tied the game at 73 on back-to-back buckets by Lendeborg. However, Memphis dominated the final five minutes to walk away with the win.

Part of the UAB problem was the Blazers once again struggled making what Kennedy calls “clean looks.”

“Clean looks you should be in the mid-50s (percentage) because you're gonna have some tested looks and that percentage is gonna go down,” Kennedy said. “This team's in the low 40s in clean looks and today we were 11 for 26. So I'm foolish to think that's gonna change. Well, how we've been able to win 19 games then? We’ve done a great job off our offensive glass today. We get outscored by 11 points on second chance points today. We've done a great job on scoring points off turnovers. We've done a great job of playing through in the paint. Memphis beat us in the paint, Memphis beat us on second chance points.  When we don't capitalize on those areas, our margin for error ends up being seven points and that's where it came from.”

Chris Coleman had a solid game with 14 points and nine rebounds and Bradley Ezewiro finished with 12 points and three rebounds.

UAB (19-10 overall, 12-4 AAC) falls into third place behind Memphis (24-5, 14-2) and North Texas (21-6, 12-3). The Blazers return to the court next Thursday at Bartow Arena against FAU and close the regular season on Sunday at Tulane.