With more than half of his total points almost midway through the second half, UAB’s Alejandro Vasquez gently trotted his way to the top of the arc with Efrem “Butta” Johnson driving aggressively to the basket.

Catching the corner of Johnson’s eye, who pumped the breaks on his drive and immediately tossed the ball back, Vasquez rose up for a wide-open triple in what would become a career outing for the junior transfer guard.

“When you can see the first couple go in, you can kind of feel it,” Vasquez said.

The Blazers had five players in double figures and flexed their defensive muscle in clinching an 83-69 victory over Tulane, Wednesday, Jan. 14, at Bartow Arena in Birmingham.

“We had a number of different guys step up and that’s what you need when you’re trying to get through the early part of a conference season in the rigors of a 30-plus game season,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy said. “Different dudes have to step up on different nights and we got that today. Our ball security was good and really proud when I see the numbers off our glass, because honestly, that’s how we survive with this current roster.”

UAB (11-6, 3-1 AAC) entered the game at 182 in the NCAA NET rankings and takes a Quad-3 win over the Green Wave (104).

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The Blazers shot 48.6 percent overall but were 6-of-22 on 3-pointers and 9-of-17 at the charity stripe. UAB forced 10 turnovers, resulting in 18 points, held the Green Wave to 39.7 percent from the field and dominated the paint with a plus-20 advantage on both rebounding and interior scoring.

Additionally, UAB held a Division I opponent to less than 70 points for the first time since a 58-57 win over Middle Tennessee State on Nov. 21.

“Playing through content, offensive rebounds, those effort area points, were tremendous for us tonight,” Kennedy said. “It’s an area that we haven’t been great in but we win the 50-50 balls. When I go back and watch the tape, I’ll be surprised if we didn’t score six to eight points just off effort on our offensive glass. We win the battle of the boards by 20. We have 13 offensive rebounds, they have one, and that’s the difference in the game.”

Vasquez scored a career-high 28 points and added six rebounds while shooting 10-of-17 from the field and 4-of-9 from 3-point range. He had 14 points in each half and was instrumental in a 9-3 run late in the game after Tulane had cut the lead to three points with 6:50 remaining.

“We had a new game plan coming into this weekend,” Vasquez said. “We knew it was going to be a quick turnaround because we had two games so we jumped on them early and stuck to the game plan.”

Yaxel Lendeborg posted his seventh double-double of the season, scoring 11 points and dominating the glass with a career-high 18 rebounds.

After Tulane had tied the game 29-all late in the first half, Lendeborg tipped a miss several times before knocking it back into play on his way out-of-bounds. Daniel Ortiz saved the rebound and lofted it back to Lendeborg for a slam, who made his way back to the paint from the boundary during the scrum.

“Yax is tremendous and still looks like he’s going in slow-motion at times,” Kennedy said. “He’s just got a nose for the ball. Now there are times with athleticism when he gets his feet tangled and there are times when you’re playing (Florida Atlantic’s) Vlad Goldin where size is going to be a problem. When he’s playing like-size guys and that ball goes up on that rim and into traffic, nine times out of 10, Yaxel is going to come out of there with it and he did that tonight.”

The Blazers jumped out to an early 7-2 lead but Tulane countered with an 11-4 run to exert control until midway through the opening half. Tony Toney and Efrem “Butta” Johnson combined on a 6-0 run and Vasquez, Lendeborg and Christian Coleman finished off an 11-2 run to escape a 10-point deficit and take a 29-27 lead with 5:19 left in the frame.

UAB finished out the half on a 10-4 run, powered by Lendeborg and Vasquez, and held a 39-33 lead entering the halftime break.

Tulane quickly reasserted itself to open the second half, trimming the UAB advantage to a single bucket on an 8-3 run, and was able to come as close as three points with more than five minutes remaining. Vasquez scored seven of UAB’s next nine points to build a nine-point lead and the Blazers closed out the final three minutes with an 11-4 run in securing the double-digit victory.

“We were really lethargic to start the game and finished the half pretty strong, but a lot of that was just effort and loose balls,” Kennedy said. “Yax jumping over the row, keeping the ball alive and ends up with a dunk — plays like that. In the second half, we were much more efficient with our execution and did a better job of finding where the gaps were in the zone and finishing. Our 1-3-1 was very effective in trying to keep them out of rhythm.”

Johnson finished with 15 points, two rebounds and six assists with only one turnover, followed by Coleman with 13 points and seven rebounds. Eric Gaines added six points, eight rebounds and four assists, and Javian Davis had four points, two boards and a block and steal. Tony Toney, Barry Dunning Jr. and Ortiz contributed two points each.

“Obviously, it was not Eric’s best game,” Kennedy said. “But at the end, he got his hands on a couple of balls which allowed us to get out in the open floor. I sat him for a little bit to try to let him clear his head and it worked.”

The Blazers remain at home as they welcome East Carolina, Saturday, Jan. 20, at Bartow Arena in Birmingham. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. CT on ESPN+.