UAB Outlasts Drake, 74-69

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - December 6, 2025

The UAB men’s basketball team has been successful under the Friday Night Lights thus far this season. Perhaps the three best victories this season have come on Friday night. The latest is a 74-69 road triumph over Drake in a game that the Blazers led for more than 31 minutes.

“Just really, really proud of my guys,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy said on Blazers Sports Network from Learfield. “We were hanging in there, hanging in there. We were determined to get it as close as we could to that basket. How about Evan Chatman? Fifteen big rebounds. KyeRon Lindsay-Martin, 12 big rebounds. I thought Daniel Rivera had some great finishes for us at the rim and we were able to seal it at the free throw line.”

Mix it all together and UAB improves to 3-1 on Friday night, including home wins over High Point and South Alabama and a road loss at North Carolina State.

Defense and rebounding were the keys to the latest Friday victory. UAB had no success stopping Jalen Quinn, who strung together a game-high 26 points, which included three 3-pointers and 9-for-10 shooting from the free throw line. But no other Drake player reached double digits and the Bulldogs (6-4) hit 38.7 percent from the field. Drake did hurt UAB on 3-pointers in the first half, hitting 6 of 14, but the Blazers did a better job of defending outside the arc after halftime. Drake was 3-of-10 on 3-pointers in the second half.

“Our defense was just outstanding,” Kennedy said. “If it wasn't for Jalen Quinn, man, is he a good player. They're a very, very efficient, offensive team. They're a team that was, in the first half, they were 6-for-14 (from 3). So we challenged our guys if they go 6-for-14 (9n the second half), it's going to be hard for us to win the game. And they ended up going 3-for-10. So we did a good job from the 3-point line.”

Freshman Salim London, who started in place of Chance Westry, played a big part even though he didn’t attempt a shot from the field or grab a rebound. His lone stats were one assist and one turnover in 15 minutes but he was a key part of the defense when he was on the floor.

“I bet you it's the first game Salim London is being mentioned where he did not have a point,” Kennedy said. “He did not have a rebound. He didn't even shoot the ball. And I thought he was outstanding. I gave him the start tonight, as you saw. I wanted to change our vibe a little bit. I didn't like some of our rotational stuff, so I changed it up, and I think that settled him down. And I thought in the second half, man, he was tremendous defensively.”

The final part of the defense was the job that UAB did on the boards. The Blazers outrebounded Drake, 44-30, overall and 13-9 on offensive rebounds.

Westry came off the bench for the first time this season and responded with a team-high 17 points to go with two assists, two blocked shots and a rebound. Ahmad Robinson had 16 points with a pair of 3-pointers and Lindsay-Martin had 14 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots. Rivera finished with eight points and six rebounds.

UAB, which improved to 7-3, now takes a bit of a break before returning to the court for a home game against Bartow Arena on Dec. 14.