Blazers Fall To NC State, 94-70, On Friday Night

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - November 8, 2025

UAB hung in the game with North Carolina State in the first 20 minutes on Friday night at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh. In the second half, though, the Blazers went ice cold and had no answers as the Wolfpack raced to a 94-70 men’s basketball victory.

The Blazers (1-1) didn’t shoot the ball particularly well in the first half but they stayed in the game against a North Carolina State team that made 19 3-pointers in the season opener and missed their first 12 from outside the stripe in the first half.

“We were pretty good early, mixed up our defenses pretty well in the first half, (which) bought us some time,” said UAB assistant coach Chris Shumate, who handled the postgame interview in place of UAB head coach Andy Kennedy on Blazer Sports Network from Learfield. “The game settled in a little bit. You’ve got to get NC State credit. They answered a little bit, especially as the first half went down. They played really well in the second half. We just kind of got off our page a little bit. They went on some runs. But I think we showed some flashes that we could have a chance to be pretty good. We need to see more of it.”

UAB had a few leads in the first half but fell behind 41-33 at halftime. Part of the reason that UAB hung in there was the offensive performance of Jacob Meyer, who had 12 of his team high 15 points early in the game.

“Jacob's a very aggressive scorer,” Shumate said. “You know he was very assertive early in the game, but you know it's got to be better over the course of 40 minutes. At the end of the day, we scored a ball decently in the first half, probably the first 10-12 minutes of the game. The thing that jumps out of me off the stat sheet is we gave them 53 points in the second half.”

North Carolina State (2-0) missed its first 12 3-pointers. After that, though, the Wolfpack was 10-of-18 from outside the stripe. UAB couldn’t keep offensively, making 4-of-25 3-pointers in the game. Ahmad Robinson was 1 of 7 on 3-pointers and Meyer missed all five of his 3-point attempts.

UAB gave up a lot of size in the paint but only lost the rebound battle, 38-35, and both teamad 44 points in the paint. Evan Chatman led the Blazers on the boards with nine rebounds to go along with five points. Daniel Rivera had 12 points, hitting 6-of-7 from the field, and seven rebounds and KyeRon Lindsay-Martin had eight points and six rebounds. Chance Westry had an efficient night on the offensive end with 14 points, hitting 6-of-9 from the field, four assists and two rebounds.