By Steve Irvine
November 14, 2026 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
The question of what went wrong for the UAB men’s basketball team during Saturday night’s 71-68 loss to Jacksonville State was not hard to figure out. Just check out what happened in the paint.
The Gamecocks not only outrebounded the Blazers, 40-31, but they also got a career best performance by 6-foot-8 Ethan Croley, who averaged 1.9 points and 1.3 rebounds last year at Nevada and entered the game averaging 7.3 points and 5.7 rebounds this season. On Saturday, he was the best big man on the floor by a considerable amount.
“First shot defense really doesn’t matter if you can’t secure your defensive glass,” Kennedy said in the postgame on Blazer Sports Network from Learfield. “We got outrebounded by nine, we give up 12 big offensive rebounds. (Croley) goes for 20 points and 17 rebounds, just completely dominates us up front, which is problematic for us.”
Kennedy is still searching for an answer in the front court. His best option – KyeRon Lindsay-Martin – is sitting in the stands hoping to become eligible for a fifth college basketball season as the clock quickly ticks. Antallah Sandlin-El started on Saturday but didn’t secure a rebound in 15 minutes on the floor. True freshman Kaleb Davis played a season-high 16 minutes but had just two points and three rebounds. Matt Mbole had one rebound and one turnover in four minutes.
“We're not getting production out of the five as it relates to paint presence, as it relates to the ability to finish at the basket, as it relates to defending the basket and as it relates to rebounding,” said Kennedy, whose team fell to 2-2. “So we have got to figure something out. It's the reason that we go to as many zones as we do, just to try to disguise our inability to be a force in the paint.”
That was certainly a big part of the reason for UAB trailing for most of Saturday’s game. Jacksonville State led by as many as 12 points in the game and held the lead for nearly 32 minutes.
“Offensively we don’t help ourselves,” Kennedy said. “We didn’t turn it over tonight but inability to make plays off the bounce by playing through contact (hurts). Quite frankly I thought Jacksonville State was a little more aggressive and in a one possession game those things come back to haunt.
UAB found a way to make it a one-possession game despite Jacksonville State taking a 63-51 lead with 4:50 left. UAB used a 9-2 run, which featured five points by Elijah Duval, to crawl back to a five-point deficit after Justyn Fernandez dunked the ball following a steal with 2:44 remaining. Duval and Salim London both hit 3-pointers to keep UAB in the game and a pair of free throws by Duval trimmed the deficit to 69-68 with three seconds left. But Kash Polk hit two free throws with 1.9 seconds left and UAB threw the ball away on the inbounds pass.
Fernandez had a team-high 15 points but was just 7-of-17 from the field. London had 14 points and seven rebounds, Jeremy Elyzee contributed 13 points and four rebounds and Duval had 12 points. UAB played without starting point guard Deuce Jones, who injured his heel in Thursday’s practice, and the team finished with just seven assists.