UAB finishes regular season with 90-83 win over east carolina
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - March9, 2026
Andy Kennedy doesn’t generally open his postgame press conference with an opening statement. On Sunday, though, following UAB’s 90-83 regular season closing American Conference win over East Carolina at Bartow Arena, the Blazers head coach had something to say before the first question was directed his way.
“Everybody say ugly win,” Kennedy said. “People who say ugly win haven’t won much. They’re all beautiful. They aren’t ugly.”
The beauty in this one was magnified considering what’s happened to the Blazers (20-11 overall, 11-7 American Conference) in Bartow Arena this season. Heading into Sunday, the Blazers were 1-7 at home in American Conference play and a program worst 7-9 overall, including the program’s first loss to a SWAC team.
“I mean, this team has done a lot of firsts, some bad and some good,” Kennedy said. “You know, what we've been able to do on the road, 10 straight (wins) on the road, 9-0 in league play, it's unbelievable. Twelve wins away from Bartow Arena,12-2 to be exact. If we can win one in the (American Conference) tournament, it'll be the most in the history of this program that we have won away from their homecourt. All those are great things.”
Then he got to what Sunday’s win means to all of that.
“But if we lost tonight, you know what you'd be talking about? 1-8 at home,” said Kennedy, whose has not won less than 20 games in his five seasons as the UAB head coach. “So 2-7 is not a lot better than 1-8, but it is a little bit better. It does get us to 20 wins and it does hopefully flip the narrative. Okay, no more Bartow talk. Let's renovate this thing, (athletic director Mark Ingram), as soon as possible. Let's bring in some sage and get this thing back like it's a new building. And let's go to Legacy Arena and see what we can do.”
UAB came into Sunday’s game knowing they had the No. 4 seed in the American Conference Tournament, which will be played at Legacy Arena next week, locked up. East Carolina came into Sunday’s game with hopes of grabbing the final spot in the tournament, which required a win over the Blazers and Memphis losing at Tulane. As it turned out, Memphis beat Tulane, 96-95, in overtime to officially eliminate ECU from tournament contention. Because the Memphis-Tulane game started earlier, the final result was announced at Bartow Arena during the latter part of UAB’s game.
“Give them credit, I mean they were fighting,” Kennedy said. “They must not have heard the public address announcer. They were eliminated. I wanted to go down there and say ‘Guys, you are eliminated, relax.’”
East Carolina was the aggressor for much of the game. The Pirates (11-20 overall, 6-12 American Conference) whipped UAB on the boards, 44-34, including 18-7 on offensive boards, and outscored UAB, 21-6, in second chance points. But, with Chance Westry once again orchestrating the offense with a second consecutive points-assist double-double, the Blazers countered by outscoring ECU, 34-3, in fastbreak points.
“We are actually the fastest fastbreak team in the conference,” Westry said. “So it was just using our speed, getting out and running and using that advantage because they’re bigger than us. (It’s) just playing with speed.”
Westry, who finished a college regular season with a major injury for the first time in four years, had 22 points, hitting 8-of-11 from the field, 11 assists, four rebounds, one steal, one blocked shot and turned the ball twice in nearly 35 minutes on the court. His contribution also played a big part in Daniel Rivera hitting 9-of-10 shots from the field and scoring a season-high 22 points to go with five rebounds, four assists and a steal.
Both played a big role in UAB winning the game down the stretch. The Blazers, who trailed by as many as 10 points, in the second half, outscored the Pirates, 21-6, over the final 6 minutes and nine seconds. The run began with Westry cut into a 77-69 East Carolina lead by hitting a midrange jumper. UAB followed with the next nine points to take a 78-77 lead. KyeRon Lindsay-Martin’s thunderous follow dunk gave UAB a 78-77 advantage with 3:26 left and Westry followed with a 10-foot jumper.
East Carolina made a free throw to end the 11-0 run but Jacob Meyer answered with a 3-pointer – his fourth of the game – to give the Blazers a 83-78 lead with 1:39 left.
Meyer was coming off three games when he scored a total of 12 points with just four coming in the two most recent games. On Sunday, he returned to form, scoring 18 points while hitting 6-for-10 from the field and making all but one of his 3-point attempts. He also had six rebounds.
“I feel like it opens up the whole offense with him scoring,” Westry said of Meyer rejoining the offensive success. “Obviously, he’s a threat shooting from three, so they’ve got to respect that. And then it opens it up for me to get in the lane, see the bigs and let them step up.”
Lindsay-Martin stepped up on an afternoon when Evan Chatman uncharacteristically struggled to put the ball in the basket. Lindsay-Martin had 12 points and eight rebounds despite fighting through foul trouble.
Quaran McPherson also made a timely contribution down the stretch. East Carolina trimmed the deficit to 83-81 on a 3-pointer by Corey Caulker with 1:25 left. McPherson drove into the lane on the next possession and hit a 14-foot jumper to build the lead back to two possessions. From there, UAB closed it out by outscoring the Pirates, 7-2.
Now, they turn their attention to the postseason, which begins for the Blazers on Friday at noon at Legacy Arena. The Blazers will play either Tulane, Memphis or Charlotte. Memphis, the No. 8 seed, will face Tulane on Wednesday at 6 p.m. with the winner advancing to face No. 5 seed Charlotte on Thursday night.
The Blazers will go into it with the confidence of coming off Sunday’s win.
“We had to find ways to, again, win a game when we're not at our best,” Kennedy said. “We did that. I thought we were terrific in the second half. I was proud of our guys. Again, I appreciate our fans. And I'm hoping now we can exhale, get our legs back under us and be excited about conference tournament. There's nothing like it. You know, this is March Madness and it'll last as long as we put ourselves in a position with our defense.”