Blazers Beat Cleveland State 101-77 in Bartow Arena
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - December 18, 2025
The snapshot of what UAB basketball head coach Andy Kennedy expects from Chance Westry lasted for nearly 40 minutes on Wednesday night in a 101-77 victory over Cleveland State at Bartow Arena.
“I just see a lot more,” Kennedy said. “He's a talented kid, and I need him to be locked in on both ends of the floor. There are times that he'll just take plays off that I see that just drive me crazy. My job is to push him to a level he can't push himself and so I'm going to do that.”
Just three days prior, Kennedy expressed frustration over Westry’s lack of effort recently, particularly in a frustrating home loss to Troy. Kennedy didn’t actually call Westry out by name but it didn’t take much digging to figure out who he was talking about.
On Wednesday, however there were no complaints after Westry strung together perhaps his most complete game of the season. The 6-foot-6 sophomore, who is healthy for the first time in his college career, scored a career-high 31 points on 12-of-15 shooting from the field, including a made 3-pointer on his lone long-range attempt, and 6-of-9 from the free throw line. He also added six assists, five rebounds, two blocked shots, one steal and just one turnover in just over 30 minutes on the court.
Pretty hard to nitpick that performance, which helped the Blazers improve to 8-4, but Westry welcomes the push he gets from his head coach.
“I mean he challenges me every single day, he’s like a father to me,” Westry said. “Just playing hard and playing with force and edging up. Just having that mentality like any day, any second, just go out there and play as hard as you can get because you never know when this opportunity can slip up. I’m taking advantage of my opportunity.”
It was evident from the opening tip that Westry was possibly headed toward a big night. He drove into the paint early and often and ended up scoring 16 points in a first half that ended with UAB leading 42-37.
“I mean it builds my confidence seeing those go in,” Westry said. “One goes in, okay, and then another goes in. Just seeing it go in, it’s a good feeling, you know.”
Westry had similar nights early in the season. During the first five games, he was 38-of-59 from the field, which is a crisp 64.4 percent. Over the next six games, though, he was 19-of-59 from the field, which is 32.2 percent.
On Wednesday, he was also just a part of a big night for the Blazers, especially in the second half. UAB shot 65.7 percent from the field after halftime, including 5-of-10 from 3-point range, and outscored the Vikings, 59-40. At the center of that was 6-foot-8 forward Evan Chatman, who scored all 17 of his points after halftime. Most of those points came on from outside the 3-point stripe, where he finished 4-of-8. Over the first 12 games, Chatman, who was an excellent shooter in junior college, was 5-of-26 on 3-pointers.
“I thought he was tremendous,” Kennedy said. “You know, he's our best rebounder, and we thought that he would be a stretch guy. I really believed that he was capable of that. Obviously junior college to the Division I level is a massive jump. But we felt like last year he shot it in the high 30s and he made about 41 (3-pointers). So he made about 1.2, 1.3 game. I anticipated him being between 30 and 45 made threes this year and doing it between 33 and 37%. I still think he's capable. He's gotten off to a pretty slow start, but hopefully tonight was the game that he needs to be the catalyst to do the things that I think he's capable of doing.”
Chatman was also a big part of a strong game by UAB’s frontcourt, which helped the Blazers outrebound Cleveland State, 40-28, and outscore the Vikings in the paint, 54-24. Chatman had six rebounds and two blocked shots to go with his 17 points. Daniel Rivera (17 points, six rebounds, one assist) and Kyeron Lindsay-Martin (six points, nine rebounds, one blocked shot) also had productive evenings.
Ahmad Robinson had 11 points, six rebounds and three of the team’s eight steals. UAB forced 14 turnovers and won points off turnovers (24-2) and second chance points (14-0).
The Blazers played without Jacob Meyer, who injured his left ankle in the loss to Troy.
“Still day to day,” Kennedy said of Meyer’s availability moving forward, beginning with Sunday’s visit from UNC Asheville. “We had an x-ray the next day. He had nothing broken. He's a pretty quick healer. He's a tough kid. I don't know his pain tolerance. We're about to find out. But now, tomorrow, we'll get him back moving, and then we'll just go by what he tells us. I told him we don't give out badges of honor. I don't want you out there limping around trying to look like Willis Reed. Either you can play or you can't. And if he can play, obviously he's a valuable commodity.”