Lendeborg Leads UAB Past North Texas And Into AAC Finals Rematch With Memphis

By Steve Irvine

FORT WORTH, TEXAS - March 16, 2025

UAB walked into Dickies Arena earlier this week with expectations that they would be playing for a championship in that building on Sunday afternoon. After all, that’s what the Blazers do this time of year under Andy Kennedy.

The Blazers will make their fourth consecutive conference tournament championship game appearance on Sunday. The latest ticket was stamped on Saturday afternoon when UAB beat North Texas at its own game in a 66-56 victory over the Mean Green in the second AAC Tournament of the day. That earned the No. 3 seeded Blazers a final shot at playing regular season champion Memphis for the third time this season.

“I came back here, I'm a proud alum,” said Kennedy, who is 11-2 in conference tournament games over his five seasons as the program’s head coach. “Not only I went to school there, but I was a part of the Gene Bartow legacy. I take great pride in that. I came back for moments such as this. Three out of our four years, we've been able to accomplish some good things and putting ourselves in positions for games such as this.”

Each tournament and each game has its own script. The latest semifinal victory included a gutsy effort by Yaxel Lendeborg, some huge 3-pointers late in the shot clock and late in the game by Tony Toney and Ja’Borri McGhee and a whole bunch of quality defense. The defense and timely shot making is what North Texas has hung its hat only for several seasons.

“I respect the way they do business,” said Kennedy, whose team beat North Texas two out of three times this season. “I thought our guys were terrific in that regard. Defensively, it was as connected as we have been as a group for about 28 minutes, and then we lost a little bit of composure. We let Atin Wright get going. All of a sudden it made us a little bit nervous, but we were able to close the game by getting some good defensive stops. You hold a team under 60 points in a conference tournament, you ought to be able to manufacture enough points to win and thanks to these two guys on my left (Lendeborg and McGhee), we were able to do so.”

UAB built a 30-20 halftime lead after outscoring North Texas, 19-7, over the last eight minutes of the half. But the half ended with an important question. How healthy would Lendeborg be in the second half?

Lendeborg, who leads UAB (22-11) in just about every statistical category, hurt his right foot at some point in the first half. He came to the bench twice in the half, both times taking off his right shoe. The second time was in the final minute of the first half and he was working with UAB trainer Bryan Koch. Lendeborg limped to the locker room just before the half came to a close.

Kennedy said on his halftime television appearance that Lendeborg had stubbed his toe. However, it looked worse than that.

“I'm a little bit dramatic, so once you feel a little bit of pain in your foot, you just start thinking about, ‘Oh, my God, it's over. I can't play no more,’” Lendeborg said. “And I just got in my head, of course. B Koch was helping me out pretty well with getting me right and getting my mental right, just saying it's going to be okay and stuff. I ended up having to, like, tie it up, tape it, something like that and it started feeling a little better.”

For the record, it was taped up, not tied up. And Lendeborg, who also put on a different pair of shoes, drained a 3-pointer on the first UAB possession of the second half and closed a 11-3 UAB run with back-to-back buckets.

“I knew once he made that three, I said, That toe ain't hurting anymore, is it?” Kennedy said. “And he was playing with a little bit more pace, some huge plays down the stretch.”

Lendeborg’s second half numbers included 17 points, six rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot. Overall, he compiled another double-double with 23 points and 13 rebounds and played his second consecutive game without a turnover. Lendeborg has played more than 76 minutes in the tournament without committing a turnover.

He helped UAB keep the lead in double digits until back-to-back 3-pointers by Wright and Latrell Jossell changed the complexion of the game. Suddenly, a 12-point lead was cut in half and North Texas (24-8) had the momentum. UAB built the lead back to 10 points after Toney drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 4:30 remaining. But North Texas counterd with six points in a row and looked like they might get a shot clock violation. However, after a scramble, McGhee was able to fire off an off-balance contested shot from nearly out of bounds on the right wing. It went in with 2:16 seconds on the clock.

“Honestly, it was just a reaction thing,” said McGhee, who finished with 16 points, six rebounds and four assists. “Like, I knew the clock was going down. I had like five (second) and it was kind of closed on offense. I really couldn't get to my spot in the lane because I had a guy there. I actually bobbled the ball and I knew I had to get it up and I really just wanted to get it on the rim for the best rebounder in the world and it went in.”

Not long afterward, Lendeborg drove to the basket for a score to give UAB the 61-52 lead. The Blazers never let North Texas threaten again.