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  • UAB Blazers Jump Into The Win Column By Beating The Maryland Terrapins, 66-63

UAB Blazers Jump Into The Win Column By Beating The Maryland Terrapins, 66-63

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Basketball

UAB men's basketball (1-2) took down Maryland (1-2) at the Asheville Championship to pick up its first win of the season, 66-63. Eric Gaines led the Blazers with 20 points and four steals while Alejandro Vasquez added 14 points and grabbed five rebounds.

UAB found itself trailing by 11 in the first half after Julian Reese's dunk put the Terps up 27-16, forcing Andy Kennedy to call a timeout. On the ensuing Maryland possession, Eric Gaines picked off a pass and took it all the way in for a dunk before doing the same thing on the following possession to swing the momentum back to the Blazers.

The Blazers found an edge in the middle portion of the contest. After a Maryland three with 4:35 left in the first half, the UAB defense held the Terrapins scoreless for the rest of the half. Maryland led UAB 30-24 at the half.

Efrem "Butta" Johnson scored the first points of the half and Gaines added four straight, capped off by a steal and dunk to tie the game at 30 after 1:39 of game time.

With Maryland leading by one, Alejandro Vasquez started forcing the issue on the offensive end. He went on a solo 7-0 run with some tough drives to the basket. His free throw with 12:39 to go put UAB ahead 46-36.

The Blazers extended the lead to 12 points with 7:39 to go after Tony Toney converted his steal into two points. However, Maryland began to respond, scoring four points on the ensuing possession.

Down the stretch, Maryland continued to pressure the UAB offense, forcing the Blazers lead down to two points with 31 seconds remaining. After Johnson knocked down a pair of free throws for UAB, Maryland scored with 10 seconds to go to make it a 65-63 ballgame. Gaines then went to the line and hit one of two free throws to extend the lead to three.

Yaxel Lendeborg blocked the Terps' three at the buzzer, his fourth of the game, and Eric Gaines collected it to cap off the Blazers' win.

NOTES

  • Eric Gaines added his third 20-point game of his career while picking up four steals and adding three assists.
  • Alejandro Vasquez scored 14 points and grabbed five boards in his first double-digit scoring effort at the Division I level since 2020-21.
  • Christian Coleman and Yaxel Lendeborg combined for eight blocks on the defensive end with four each.
  • The Blazers went 21-for--23 from the free throw line.
  • UAB's nine three-point attempts are the fewest since February 26, 2021 against UTSA and the one made three matches the least in a single game of the Andy Kennedy era.
  • The Blazers picked up their first win over a Big Ten opponent since 2006 vs. Minnesota. The last UAB win over a current Big Ten member was during the 2013-14 season over Rutgers – one year prior to the Scarlet Knights' first season in the Big Ten.

ANDY KENNEDY
"It was a great environment against quality competition early in the year. That's the reason you do these things. You learn a lot about your team and we certainly learned a lot about our group over the last 72 hours. We're close. We are a possession here and a possession there from sitting here at 3-0, but there's nothing that we can do about that except learn. I think our guys put themselves in position to earn a quality win and fortunately we were able to capitalize."

UP NEXT
The Blazers will host Alcorn State on Thursday, November 16 at Bartow Arena. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. CT.