UAB Falls To Western Kentucky In Final Moments Of Exhibition Game

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - October 30, 2025

Andy Kennedy opened his postgame press conference by searching for positives after his UAB men’s basketball team dropped a 78-76 decision to visiting Western Kentucky on Wednesday night inside Bartow Arena.

That search didn’t go well.

“The areas that are the most unpleasant for me was that if you were at the Vandy game, if that was a prize fight, then Vandy threw more punches than us and landed more,” said Kennedy, whose team lost to Vanderbilt 89-67 last Thursday in the Blazers first exhibition game. “As a result, they won the game in a pretty comfortable fashion. They were the more aggressive team. Tonight, I think Western Kentucky threw more punches and landed more. And I thought they were the more aggressive team. That can't be the case. And we have stressed nothing but that leading into this game. We didn't get the carry over that I was looking for.”

For the second straight exhibition game, the Blazers also had trouble finishing through contact on the offensive end and keeping the opposing team from getting to the rim on the defensive end. UAB also was just 15-of-31 from the free throw line, shot 37 percent from the field and lost the points in the paint, 44-30.

Yet, through it all the game wasn’t decided until Western Kentucky’s LJ Hackman got to the bucket for the game-winning layup with just under five seconds on the clock. UAB’s Jacob Meyer got a contested 3-pointer off before the buzzer but it was blocked by Hackman.

It was a difficult ending to a productive night for Meyer. The 6-foot-2 junior transfer from Depaul scored 18 of his team-high 20 points in the second half. The two first half points came just before the halftime buzzer when he grabbed a rebound, dribbled the length of the court and hit a layup to cut the Western Kentucky lead to 32-27.

“That last (second) bucket, it got me in the rhythm,” Meyer said. “It got me going in the second half.”

Meyer was 8-of-16 from the field in the second half, after hitting just one shot in four attempts in the first 20 minutes. At one point, Meyer scored 11 of his team’s 12 points to help the Blazers take a 53-49 lead.

But Western Kentucky settled down and built leads that stretched to as many as seven points late in the game. UAB battled back and were able to tie the game on five consecutive points by Ahmad Robinson in the final minute. Robinson’s 15-foot jumper cut the Hilltoppers lead to 76-73 with 55 seconds left. After a defensive stop, Robinson nailed a 3-pointer to tied the score with 25 seconds on the clock.

“After Ahmad made the shot, we just let him blow right by us and go lay it up to take an L,” Kennedy said. “I want them to be really, really disappointed because I'm really, really disappointed and disappointed in myself for not being able to help this group more.”

Robinson had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds but also had five turnovers in the first. Evan Chatman fell just short of a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds and also had three 3-pointers. KyeRon Lindsay-Martin had 10 points and seven rebounds and Daniel Rivera had 11 points and seven rebounds.

UAB opens the regular season on Monday at 6:30 p.m. against Mississippi Valley State at Bartow Arena.