Blazers Lose to Troy on Last Second Shot in Bartow Arena
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - December 14, 2025
UAB got the stop it needed on the final possession of Sunday’s game against visiting Troy. But the Blazers didn’t get the finish.
The stop came when Cobi Campbell’s hurried 3-pointer from well beyond the top of the key missed the mark. However, it was Troy who finished the play when Thomas Dowd got to the basketball first and threw in a short shot just before the buzzer to give the Trojans the 86-85 win over the Blazers at Bartow Arena.
“We got them to take a 30-foot shot,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy said. “Again, a lot is going on, everybody’s charting the flight of the ball. I could tell it was going to be off, so I didn’t see the missed block out, but I’ve got a pretty good idea. We don’t get the block out, they pursue the ball and (it’s) a win for them.”
The game-winning sequence came just after UAB had fought back from a five-point deficit in the final 35 seconds. The comeback began with a fastbreak dunk by Evan Chatman, which came off Ahmad Robinson’s eighth assist of the game. After a timeout, Salim London stole the ball in the backcourt and converted a layup that trimmed Troy’s advantage to 84-83 with 24 seconds remaining.
Troy (7-5) had a chance to pad the lead with 12.3 seconds left but Dowd missed the front end of a 1-and-1 situation. Daniel Rivera grabbed the rebound and quickly shoveled the ball to Robinson, who drove the length of the court and hit a shot over the 6-foot-8 Dowd to give UAB (7-4) an 85-84 lead with five seconds on the clock.
The Trojans threw a pass to midcourt that was tipped out of bounds after being nearly intercepted by London. Troy inbounded the ball to Cambell, who took the 30-foot attempt. The ball missed the rim but clanked off the right side of the backboard into Dowd’s hands.
Afterward, Kennedy was more upset about what happened the prior 20 minutes. UAB took a 39-35 lead into halftime but were scorched in the second half by a Troy offense that shot 56.7 percent from field and hit 9-of-13 3-pointers.
“Defensively, you can’t give up 51 points in your own building in the second half and expect to be on the right side,” Kennedy said. “It was still hoping maybe because of making plays offensively, we could make plays, but not to be.”
UAB played most of the game without Jacob Meyer, who suffered an ankle injury midway through the first half. Meyer, the team’s second leading scorer at 14.7 points, wore a boot on his left foot while watching from the bench. Kennedy said afterward he is not sure of Meyer’s status moving forward.
“He’s our most aggressive scorer,” Kennedy said. “He plays with the most authority on our team offensively. We just missed his experience. If he’s not leading us in the minutes, he certainly right at the top. It’s really next man up.”
Robinson and London were clearly the offensive sparks. Robinson reached a season-high in points with 25 and the eight assists. He scored 18 points in the second half with most coming at critical moments. London, who started in place of Chance Westry for the second consecutive game, got off to a quick start with back-to-back 3-pointers and finished with a season-best 19 points while adding three rebounds, three assists and three steals with no turnovers in nearly 36 minutes.
“I put Salim in the starting lineup for a couple of reasons,” Kennedy said. “Number one, I’m trying to get guys to play with more of an edge. It drives me crazy that I’m constantly having to coach effort. It’s ridiculous, honestly. So, I made the change and I also want to get him the ball early so he can relax with the ball. And, man, offensively I though he was outstanding.”
Again, though, the problem comes back to a defense that had no answer for Victor Valdes (26 points) and allowed too many open 3-pointers. Troy hit 14-of-28 3-pointers overall with Campbell brothers – Cobi and Cooper – each hitting four.
“Our issue, again, was our inability to guard,” Kennedy said. “And it’s just discouraging because I thought defensively we were really connected in our last outing at Drake. We came in tonight and shot the ball. We you score 85 points in your own building, you should win the game.”