Jordan “Jelly” Walker doesn’t often ride the bench unless injured but the senior point guard for the UAB basketball team sat for almost eight minutes after picking up a fourth foul early in the second half.
His teammates picked up the slack during an epic shooting streak and Walker returned in the final minutes as the Blazers completed a double-digit rally for an 83-78 victory over UTSA, Saturday, Feb. 18, at the Convocation Center in San Antonio.
UAB entered the game at 62 in the NCAA NET and improves to 20-8 overall and 11-6 in C-USA -- winning 7 of its last 8 games and clinching a 20-win season for a third straight year under Kennedy -- after earning the regular-season sweep of the Roadrunners.
“It’s so amazing, we end up getting outrebounded by 12, we give up 15 offensive rebounds -- 15 offensive rebounds -- which were allowing them to stay in the game,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy told David Crane on Blazer Sportsline postgame. “When you play as poorly as we did for as long as we did (on the defensive end), sometimes it takes a miraculous effort offensively. I would say 70 percent in a half, on the road in this league, is a pretty remarkable stat.”
The Blazers shot 48.4 percent from the field, 43.8 percent from beyond the arc (7-of-16) and were 14-for-23 at the charity stripe. Despite an inauspicious start to the game, in the second half UAB was 70.4 percent overall, made 10 straight shots during an eight-minute stretch and finished shooting 18-for-22 after opening the half going 1-of-5 from the field.
Defensively, UAB forced 12 turnovers that resulted in 19 points but allowed the Roadrunners to shoot 43.5 percent overall and won the rebounding battle with a plus-12 edge on the glass.
“We didn’t guard and, add to that the fact that we shot 32 percent (in the first half), our offense really hurt our defense,” Kennedy said. “Second half, we try to make a little bit of a push, get it close, they respond and Jelly picks up his fourth (foul). We have to go with a dysfunctional lineup and those guys really stepped up. It was the key to the game when Jelly was out, we made a little bit of push, and then at the end, he closed it for us.”
The Roadrunners sprinted out to an 11-0 lead before the Blazers scored their first points of the game on a Tony Toney free throw at the 16:35 mark of the first half. UTSA built its largest lead at 14-2 but the Blazers roared back on a 19-4 run to take a 21-18 lead midway through the half. However, the Roadrunners closed out with a 13-6 surge to claim a 41-35 lead at the halftime break.
“It’s not easy on the road,” Kennedy said. “I know UTSA has had a tough year but they are coming off an impressive win, where they were dominant against Rice. When you get that first one, it fuses you with energy and they came out and really attacked us.”
Walker finished with a game-high 25 points, adding 4 rebounds and 4 assists with no turnovers, but sat almost eight minutes after picking up a fourth foul at the 16:07 mark of the second half.
During his time on the bench, the Blazers went on a 20-12 run to pull within three points before Walker returned with 8:14 remaining in the game. The nation’s fourth-leading scorer (22.5 ppg) scored the final 10 points for UAB during a game-clinching 19-9 run in the final six minutes.
KJ Buffen scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half, along with 2 rebounds and 2 assists, and Ty Brewer had 12 points and 7 rebounds. Trey Jemison finished with 8 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocks.
“It was defense and if I remember correctly, (Eric) Gaines wasn’t in the game either,” Kennedy said. “We were more physical on the perimeter, I had Butta (Johnson) running the 1, and that’s when KJ Buffen stepped up and made some plays. Ty Brewer, defense to offense, Trey (Jemison) with a huge hook -- different guys stepped up and we attacked them inside out.”
Javian Davis and Toney scored 7 points each, followed by Eric Gaines with 4 points, 4 assists and 3 blocks. Efrem “Butta” Johnson added 3 points and Tavin Lovan contributed 2 steals.
The Blazers return for their final home game of the season against Rice, Thursday, Feb. 23, at Bartow Arena in Birmingham. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN+.