UAB Downs Charlotte to Complete Perfect Road Schedule In Upside Down season
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - March 5, 2026
UAB closed out its road game portion of the American Conference schedule by scoring on its final 16 consecutive possessions. In other words, the Blazers put together a spectacular ending on what has been a spectacular road trip through conference play.
With the latest win – an 80-74 triumph over Charlotte at Halton Arena – the Blazers are the second team in American Conference history to finish 9-0 on the road in the conference and only the second team in school history to claim 10 road victories in a season.
“Nine straight in league play on the road, 10 straight overall,” Andy Kennedy said in his postgame radio appearance on Blazer Sports Network from Learfield. “It's incredible, really, for a group that certainly has had its struggles all year. Really proud of us just kind of hanging in there, hanging in there, and making the push at the end.”
Look closely and you see different fingerprints all over this victory on a night when UAB led for just seven minutes and 44 seconds and didn’t take its initial second half lead until there were less than four minutes remaining. None of the fingerprints were more prominent than the ones provided by Chance Westry and Evan Chatman. Westry came perilously close to a triple-double with 20 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds and made all eight of his free throws. Chatman got a sluggish offense started with a pair of early 3-pointers and finished with 19 points and nine rebounds.
But that was just a start.
Dayjuan Anderson didn’t have a great shooting night but he hit a short jumper with about nine minutes left to start the late game surge and added a 3-pointer to tie the game about four minutes later. Quaran McPherson had a key 3-pointer and another basket in the final minutes. Salim London scored all five of his points in the second half. And KyeRon Lindsay-Martin scored eight of his 12 points in the final five minutes.
Kennedy singled out Lindsay-Martin’s contribution.
“I thought he played with force,” Kennedy said. “And, you know, we told him he's got some ability at about 15-16 feet to put some pressure on their big guy. Their big guy (Anton Bonke) doesn't like to get out of that lane. He is a load in there and he hurt us some on the offensive end. But defensively, when we were spread, we tried to attack him while we could and try to use our speed to get around him. And I thought Kye did a good job of utilizing just that.”
Nearly everyone chipped in at the free throw line on a night when UAB made all 20 of its free throw attempts. It was the first time UAB didn’t miss at the free throw line since they hit all 13 free throws in a lopsided win over Auburn-Montgomery on Nov. 18, 2024. The last time the Blazers did that in a game against a Division I opponent was when they were 17-for-17 in a NIT quarterfinal win at Vanderbilt on March 22, 2023.
UAB also won most of the significant team numbers on Wednesday night. The Blazers led in points off turnovers (13-6), total rebounds (39-27), offensive rebounds (16-8), second chance points (20-2), points in the paint (46-32) and fast break points (20-9).
The win also put UAB ahead of Charlotte in any tiebreaker situation for seeding in the upcoming American Conference Tournament at the BJCC. UAB (19-11 overall, 10-7 American Conference) has sole possession for fourth place with Charlotte (15-15 overall, 9-8 American Conference) a game behind the Blazers. FAU is tied with Charlotte and Tulane is 8-8 with a pair of games left this week. UAB can avoid any tiebreaker scenarios with a win over East Carolina on Sunday at Bartow Arena.
“So a lot still on the line,” Kennedy said. “Again, I don't want to get too deep into weeds. I'm just proud of our guys for showing some fight, showing some resolve in finding a way to get a big road win.”