Rivera Comes up Big in Blazers’ First American Conference Home Win
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - February 8, 2026
Good thing they have seats inside the Bartow Arena media room. Without those, UAB forward Daniel Rivera might not have finished his five-minute meeting with media members following the Blazers home-losing-streak-snapping 71-65 American Conference victory over Rice on Sunday afternoon at Bartow Arena.
“I’m tired,” Rivera said while slumping into a seat with a tired smile after helping the Blazers snap a five-game conference home losing streak.
Rivera had reason for the fatigue after joining Evan Chatman to carry the UAB frontline on their shoulders without fellow big man KyeRon Lindsay-Martin. The 6-foot-8 Martin-Lindsay suffered an upper body injury in practice on Saturday and was deemed a game-time decision. Martin-Lindsay warmed up with the team but told UAB head coach Andy Kennedy he couldn’t play just before they took the court for the final time before tip-off.
“You better think on your feet,” Kennedy said of how he quickly changed the plan when he found out his frontcourt would be shorthanded. “When he went down yesterday, you never know. Kids are rolling around in practice, we keep going. The next day he is sore. I asked (UAB trainer Bryan Koch) early this morning and he said ‘Hey man, I don’t know yet.’ He tried to warm up. I asked him, literally as we were coming out for the game ‘What do you think?’ And he was like, I don’t think I can go. So there’s obviously another plan.”
He ended up getting what he called the “optimal plan.”
That plan included Rivera putting together a stat line that featured 19 points, nine rebounds, including five on the offensive end, one steal, one blocked shot and one assist without coming to the bench. It also included Chatman scoring 10 points, pulling down 17 rebounds, including 13 on the defensive end against one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country, and adding two blocked shots, one assist and one steal in 38 minutes and 47 seconds on the floor.
“Evan with 17 rebounds, (that’s) crazy,” Kennedy said. “And then Daniel had the biggest plays of the game.”
The sequence Kennedy is referring to came with UAB clinging to a 62-61 lead with just over two minutes left in the game. It began with a missed jumper by Chance Westry that turned into an offensive rebound when Rivera hustled to the glass and tipped the ball out to Chatman. Salim London then missed a 3-pointer that once again turned into an offensive rebound with another hustle effort by Rivera. Westry grabbed the ball after Rivera’s tip and quickly fed it to Chatman for a dunk that gave UAB the four-point lead with 2:03 on the clock.
“I mean it's just giving the extra effort and just playing hard,” Rivera said. “I take pride in that and that's what I basically do. Just play hard. That was the key where we put our focus, between me and Ev, to offensive rebound and give our team a chance to win this game.”
UAB (15-9 overall, 6-5 American Conference) followed that sequence with a free throw by Westry, which was set up by an offensive rebound by London, and a driving layup by Westry. The Blazers then beat the press and capped off a 9-0 run with a dunk by Rivera with 1:04 on the clock. Rivera capped off his a blocked shot on with about 30 seconds on the clock.
Westry also deserves a ton of credit for the win after controlling the offensive end of the floor. Westry finished with 22 points, nine assists, three rebounds, one steal, one blocked shot and one turnover in 34 minutes.
“When he was really playing downhill was when we were most effective,” Kennedy said.
It wasn’t easy but the Blazers not only found a way to end the losing streak but also gained the tiebreaker over Rice (10-14 overall, 4-7 American Conference) in the conference standing. In a jumbled league, where the difference between first place and eighth place is just two games that could be big.
Winning at home – finally – was also critical.
“It's big for us,” said Rivera, who was 8-for-12 from the field and 3-for-5 from the line. “We're going to build on this. We're going to make sure we win the upcoming games at home. We're going to make sure that we're going to our main focus moving forward. We've been winning on the road and now we just got to start winning at home because that's in front of our people and we got to make sure we go hard for them and all of us.”
UAB returns to the road for a game against Tulsa on Wednesday night. Tulsa fell into a first place tie with USF after losing to the Bulls on Sunday. UAB’s will play again at home next Sunday against Tulane.