Yaxel Lendeborg and Chris Coleman dominate inside to power UAB to 100-72 win at Temple
Eric Gaines asked all the questions and Yaxel Lendeborg and Christian Coleman had all the answers. Along with some sharp-shooting solutions from Alejandro Vasquez and Daniel Ortiz.
The Blazers dominated the inside and rarely missed from the outside in cruising to a 100-72 victory over Temple, Thursday, March 7, at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia.
It is the most points scored by UAB on the road since a 104-70 win at Houston on Feb. 21, 1998, and the Blazers become only the fourth team — Kentucky, Wake Forest and Villanova — to score at least 100 points at Temple in the program’s 130-year history.
“There were a few keys in the game,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy told David Crane on BlazersSportsline postgame. “How are you going to guard this Iverson cut? What are you going to do in this post? What are you going to do on this ball screen? And then from there, we try to find a crease. It obviously helps when guys are knocking down shots.”
UAB (19-11, 11-6 AAC) entered the game at 127 in the NET rankings and is now in a three-way tie with Memphis and SMU for fourth place in the league standings. A win over SMU in the regular-season finale and a Memphis loss at Florida Atlantic would clinch the fourth seed and the double-bye in the conference tournament.
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The Blazers were 60.7 percent from the field and 10-of-18 on 3-pointers while Temple managed to shoot 48 percent overall. Both teams were 16-of-24 at the charity stripe. UAB allowed the Owls to shoot 48 percent overall but dominated the paint with a plus-22 edge on the glass and a plus-16 advantage on interior scoring.
“Monster effort,” Kennedy said. “(We’re) plus-22 on the glass and we only give them one offensive rebound. Dominated the points in the paint, got to the foul line, made shots, and had 22 assists on 37 made field goals. To come in and drop 100 in a league game, against a team that is relatively stingy, defensively, very impressed with us offensively.”
Gaines finished with 10 points and 10 assists for his second double-double of the season and added three rebounds and two steals. He bookended an early first-half run on a dunk and a 3-pointer and kick-started a 7-0 run with his third triple of the game to give the Blazers a 62-39 lead almost five minutes into the second half.
“Eric was really good with the ball,” Kennedy said. “Even though he has three turnovers, we only have seven in the game. He had those three early in the game. He was finding the right people the way they were trying to guard ball-screen coverage.”
Lendeborg produced his 15 double-double of the season with 19 points and 14 rebounds, including four assists and two blocks, and is 20 rebounds away from breaking Trey Jemison’s single-season record that was set last season.
“I still think he plays in third gear,” Kennedy said. “I got to get him into fourth gear.”
Coleman scored a career-high 19 points, adding seven rebounds, and ignited a 28-7 first-half run that saw the Blazers power to a 17-point lead with 1:27 left in the first half. He scored six straight points midway through the period, jumpstarting the scoring surge, and capped the run with a 3-of-4 showing at the foul line.
“Chris’s motor runs a little faster,” Kennedy said. “I don’t know if you noticed.”
Vasquez had 18 points, five rebounds and two steals, followed by Ortiz with 12 points and three rebounds. Both combined for eight rebounds and an impressive 6-of-7 showing from 3-point range.
Ortiz connected on consecutive 3-pointers midway through the second half and the former splashed home back-to-back 3-pointers to answer a couple from Temple early in the second half. Vasquez also bookended a 7-0 run to push the lead to 90-59 with a little more than five minutes left in the game.
“He was as efficient as I have seen him, really, all year,” Kennedy said. “He made some real shots. You know, sometimes, they go in and they’re horse shots, but he made some real shots. Caught and snapped that thing off.”
The Blazers battled to an early 13-10 lead but Temple responded with a 9-2 run to take its only lead of the game, 19-15, midway through the opening half. Coleman sparked a game-changing run that saw little resistance afforded to himself and Lendeborg and UAB surged to an 18-point lead before a last-second 3-pointer from the Owls cut the advantage to 47-32 entering the halftime break.
Temple scored twice on 3-pointers in the first two minutes of the second half but would come no closer, 47-35, as Vasquez answered each time before Gaines generated another run to push the advantage beyond 20 points almost midway through the period. Coleman and Vasquez combined on a 4-0 spurt to push the lead to as many as 33 points with 2:22 left in the game.
“The 1-3-1 was very effective, it changed the game,” Kennedy said. “We kept them playing in the upper half of the backcourt because that’s where you have the advantage. You’ve got typically four defenders up here and we were very, very disruptive in not allowing them to throw over it.”
Efrem “Butta” Johnson had nine points and three rebounds and Javian Davis finished with four points and two rebounds before fouling out late in the second half. Tony Toney contributed two points and two rebounds.
The Blazers return home to face SMU in the regular-season finale, Sunday, March 10, at Bartow Arena in Birmingham. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. CT on ESPN+.