UAB Defeats UNC Asheville, 72-47 on Sunday Afternoon
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - December 21, 2025
UAB, a team built on balanced scoring for the most part, put only one player in double figures on Sunday afternoon.
Turns out that formula works pretty well when the Blazers played their best defense of the season and the one double figure scorer – KyeRon Lindsay-Martin - carried the offense over the final 20 minutes of a 72-47 victory over UNC Asheville in the non-conference finale at Bartow Arena.
Put that together and it a milestone victory for UAB head coach Andy Kennedy, who reached 400 career wins during his 19th season as a college head coach.
“I'm sure it'll mean something to me one day, maybe tomorrow, maybe tonight,” Kennedy said afterward. “Who knows what the night holds? It shows that I've been real blessed. You know, that's how I look at it, I've been incredibly blessed. I'm in my 19th year as a head coach, and we've had some success. I've been really fortunate to be around some good players and some good kids, some of which I've got lifelong relationships with. And that's the goal. You want to win games. You want to do it the right way. You want to hold guys accountable. And then ultimately, you know, I'm in the scoreboard business.”
In some ways, though, the 400 wins might have been Kennedy’s second favorite number from Sunday’s win. His is something he calls sacks, which is three consecutive defensive stops. As a team, the Blazers averaged just six per game in that category. On Sunday, UAB had 11 sacks.
“You got 11 sacks, you're going to win a bunch of games,” Kennedy said.
That was just one impressive defensive number for a team that has struggled defensively at points during the season. UNC Asheville shot just 35.2 percent from the field and committed 13 turnovers. UAB had nine steals and turned the turnovers into a 16-2 advantage into points off turnovers. The Blazers also allowed no second-chance points on seven Bulldog offensive rebounds.
“It's the second consecutive game that we have not given up a point off our defensive board,” said Kennedy, whose team was coming off a 101-77 win over Cleveland State. “That's pretty amazing. I bet that's never happened in the history of UAB basketball. I don't know if it's happened in college basketball very often to have back-to-back games without giving up a second chance point. It's pretty incredible.”
Lindsay-Martin, who was the best offensive player on the floor, smiled when the subject of defense came up in the postgame press conference.
“Just being more physical and being on edge,” Lindsay-Martin said about the key to Sunday’s defense. “Coach always says being the more determined team, I think we did that for sure, especially on the defensive end. Just being physical and communicating and being on the same page is what we are really focused on in practice.”
UAB also sharp on the offensive end in the first half. The Blazers used a 18-0 run in the first 20 minutes to build a 42-26 halftime lead. The second half was not nearly as crisp.
“I thought in the first half we were really good with our ball movement, sharing the ball, playing inside out,” Kennedy said. “We were dominating them with points in the paint. The second half, I thought we got a little stagnant. It seemed like we were sleepwalking a little bit. My playmakers were not playmaking to the level that we are accustomed to, but I thought, our work off the glass, second chance points (was big).”
It also helped that Lindsay-Martin was dominant after halftime. The 6-foot-8, 222-pound senior’s second-half numbers included 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 from the line. He also had five rebounds. Put both halves together and Lindsay-Martin had 24 points and eight rebounds was 11-of-14 from the field.
“You know, it's a big confidence booster,” Lindsay-Martin said. “It just reinstills in my brain what I can do. Even if I'm not trying to score just finding the open spots and just being available and active. That's the kind of mindset I went into today. Not really trying to score, but the coaches sent me this tweet (on the) mindset of winning. Not trying to score, but just trying to do anything to help your team to win. And I think that separated me from the last two games. I was kind of being selfish and thought I needed to score to help my team win. But we got so many talented guys on the roster. So it was just kind of like trying to just find where I could help. And then I just turned up, they found me with the ball and I just had a good game.”
The scoring was spread out after that with five players with at least seven points. Evan Chatman and Quaran McPherson each had nine points, Ahmad Robinson and Chance Westry chipped in with eight points each and Daniel Rivera had seven points. Westry added seven of the team’s 16 assists and Rivera and Chatman combined for 12 rebounds. As a team, UAB won points in the paint (46-26), second chance points (9-0), fast break points (17-2) and bench points (37-16).
The Blazers now take a break before coming back to practice on Dec. 26 to prepare for the American Conference opener against visiting Wichita State on Dec. 31.