With a chance to move into a tie for first place in the American Conference with Memphis, UAB lost today’s matchup with the 18th ranked Tigers 88-81 at Bartow Arena.

The Blazers fell to 19-10 overall and now have a 12-4 conference record, and third place in the AAC.

In front of a packed Bartow Arena, UAB’s Yaxel Lendeborg struggled in defending Memphis’ frontcourt and producing offense. He finished the game with 10 points, six rebounds in 24 minutes. Part of the rough afternoon was due to foul trouble, with Lendeborg having to sit extended periods late in the first half and most of the second.

“Usually, we have Yaxel in the back to anchor us, but he picked up his third and then he picked up his fourth and then he wasn’t going to play any more defense. They were kind of going through us,” Blazers’ head coach Andy Kennedy said.

“He didn’t give us a presence (on defense) because he was so over-concerned with trying to stay in the game.”

The Tigers had no problems dominating the frontcourt, with forward Dain Dainja finishing the game with 16 points, 17 rebounds and a pair of assists. Dainja’s game-high in rebounds helped propel the Tigers to a 44-to-32 advantage in the rebound column and a 21-to-10 advantage on second chance points, putting UAB in unfamiliar territory this season.

“Outrebounded us by 12, we’re one of the best in the country in second chance points and we get beat in that area by 11, 50-50 balls they beat us by three. You can say ‘you want to do this, and you want to do that’ and the numbers tell us something else,” Kennedy said.

“We had no answer for Dain Dainja the entire game.”

The Blazers best player today was guard Ja’Borri McGhee, who led the offense for much of the game with Lendeborg in foul trouble. McGhee hit all four of his three-point attempts on the way to recording 22 points, two rebounds and five assists.

Memphis guard, and All-American candidate PJ Haggerty dominated UAB down the stretch, providing the spark Memphis needed to come back in the second half. Haggerty finished with a game-high 25 points, 17 of which came in the second half.

UAB’s next outing is Thursday night, when they travel to take on the Florida Atlantic Owls at 6 p.m.