The state of Florida has not been kind to the UAB basketball team this week.

Nor has the UAB basketball team been kind to themselves.

The Blazers allowed season-performances to two separate opposing players and gave up late second-half leads in bookending a miserable road trip with a 90-87 overtime loss to FIU, Saturday, Jan. 7, at Ocean Bank Convocation Center in Miami, Florida.

“I hate to sound like a broken record but this team is atrocious defensively,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy told David Crane on Blazers SportsLine postgame. “It doesn’t represent anything that I want it to represent on the defensive end.”

“We scored 86 and 87 points on the road and we go 0-2,” he added. “We don’t guard at all. We have no pride on the defensive end of the court. I have to make changes and that’s what I’m going to do.”

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UAB entered the game at 56 in the NCAA NET, 49 in KenPom, and drops to 12-4 overall and 3-2 in C-USA with the upset loss to the Panthers.

The Blazers shot 50 percent overall, 25 percent from 3-point range (4-for-16) and 13-for-16 at the charity stripe, and gave up 19 turnovers for the second time this season. Defensively, UAB allowed the Panthers to shoot 47.7 percent overall and 37 percent from beyond the arc, but finished with a plus-1 edge in rebounding and a plus-16 advantage on inside scoring.

Jordan “Jelly” Walker was hounded all game and finished with a season-low 5 points on 1-of-8 shooting (1-for-5 on 3-pointers), adding 2 rebounds and 4 assists. He also gave up a season-high 8 turnovers and had three personal fouls.

KJ Buffen finished with 10 points and 4 rebounds, and Javian Davis and Efrem “Butta” Johnson had 6 points and 2 rebounds each.

“I see one thing and Jelly sees something else,” Kennedy said. “He’s seen every defense known to man and he’s got to play within what the game gives him. When you’re the nation’s leading scorer, the reigning player of the year in the league, you have to understand that you’re going to get special attention. That’s a compliment to you and then you have to play through that. Tonight was a tough one for him.”

Trey “The Mayor” Jemison earned his second double-double of the season, producing a career-high 17 points and collecting 12 rebounds, and added 3 blocks to his final line. He was dominant in the second half and helped build as much as a 14-point lead with 12:06 left in regulation.

The Panthers hit a 12-0 run to trim the deficit to two points more than midway through the second half but UAB shot back ahead 74-65 on a 10-3 run with 5:11 remaining. UAB went 1-of-7 from the field in the final five minutes as FIU closed out the frame with a 14-3 run before Jemison tied the game at 79-all with a last-second tip-in off a missed layup from Buffen.

“Trey logged big minutes for us and was efficient in doing so,” Kennedy said. “You know what you got in Trey. Sometimes he gets in foul trouble a little bit but for the most part, he’s going to give you a presence in that paint. He did that for us tonight.”

Ledarrius Brewer returned to the starting lineup for the first time since a minor hand injury and finished with 15 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals. He ignited two separate first-half surges that saw UAB overcome a shaky start and build as much as a 15-point lead late in the period. FIU finished the opening half with an 11-5 run to trim the Blazers’ lead to 39-31 entering the halftime break.

“The way teams are guarding us, by design we put him in some areas where his guy will be the help guy and he can catch and shoot it,” Kennedy said. “He’s been doing that at a high rate and he rebounded it decent for us as well. He got a little bit of a hip pointer, was in and out of game down the stretch, but gutsy effort by him.”

Eric Gaines finished with a team-high 19 points, along with 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals, but gave up five turnovers on the night and none more so substantial than the final possession of overtime.

UAB opened the overtime session with Gaines forcing a steal and running the court for an ardent slam, the Panthers matching the bucket with a pair of free throws from Denver Jones, and took control with an 87-82 lead with 2:21 remaining in the period. FIU responded with a quick 5-0 spurt to tie the game and the Blazers managed to secure possession for the final shot following a shot-clock violation off an errant pass.

A designed Walker-to-Brewer pass did not materialize and Gaines gave up the final turnover after attaining possession off the lost pitch. FIU’s Dashon Gittens drove the half-court for the easy layup plus the harm with a little more than a second left in the game.

“We got a good defensive stand, it’s a tie game,” Kennedy said. “We set up what we wanted to do. From a timing standpoint, it’s exactly what I wanted. When Jelly passed it to LA (Brewer), he was supposed to cut through and be right in our far corner,” he added. “I haven’t seen the tape but for whatever reason, he didn’t do so. Eric drives it and he throws that thing directly across.”

“It could not be more poor execution, that’s on me,” he added. “Everything is on me. I know it. It’s all on me. I put this team together, I deal with them on a daily basis, and I’m the one coaching them. I am the one that cannot seem to get it in their heads that we must guard at a higher rate. But this ain’t my first rodeo. I’m not afraid to do what is necessary and that will be done.”

The Blazers return home to face Western Kentucky, Wednesday, Jan. 11, at Bartow Arena. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. CT on CBS Sports Network.