AAC Championship Recap: UAB 85-Temple 69
From the get-go in this one, #4 seed UAB looked to have been playing with a type of passion that is just hard to beat, and they played with it throughout in this one. Ultimately, they defeated Temple 85-69, in a wire-to-wire victory backed by 29 points from Alejandro Vasquez and 4 scorers in double figures.
As was the story with most of the winning teams in this year’s AAC tournament, a team effort offensively was the recipe for success and if UAB is able to continue that into March Madness they will be a very tough team to beat. Especially because after the game Coach Andy Kennedy mentioned that his team found their formula, which makes them even more dangerous come their Tournament Matchup with San Diego State.
“I am really proud of this group. I’ve been doing this as a head coach for 17 years, been in the game over 30, and I don’t know if I’ve ever had a team that grew as much as this team throughout the course of the season. I think they really started to trust and believe in one another and once we found our formula and we developed the discipline to stay to that formula, I think we showed what we were capable of doing,” Coach Kennedy said
Temple had the very tall task of playing 5 games in 5 days, and they gave a valiant effort at attempting to comeback from almost 30 down, but just fell short in the end. Hysier Miller was unstoppable at times for the Owls, scoring 32 in the loss and being a source of energy when they needed it the most. Miller played a majority of the minutes for Temple during this 5-game run and never ran out of gas, and that is something Coach Kennedy gave credit too.
“To try to go 5-5, you have to play near perfect and they came really close to doing so. So nothing but respect for Adam and his staff, those players, Hysier Miller. We knew coming into the game he played 148 of their 160 minutes. I chart those things. And he plays 30 some odd — or 40, he played all 40 tonight. That kid is incredible. He made every big play.” Coach Kennedy said.
The first 2 minutes of this game was scoreless but following that stretch the hot hand of the 1st half got going in Alejandro Vazquez for UAB. He hit 2 early triples and UAB jumped out to an early 8-2 lead at the first media timeout with 15:54 to play and was rolling with momentum.
A low scoring battle was underway in this one, which had been the theme of Temple’s last couple of wins, however in this one Temple was really struggling to keep up with the shooting of Alejandro Vasquez early. After the game, Vasquez credited his teammates for his strong performance tonight, and being able to bounce back following an ejection in game 1.
“I would just say just trusting myself. I think my teammates just were helping me, pushing me, keeping me poised. I just felt like we worked hard, and we pulled it out,” Vasquez said.
Temple had it within 3, 11-8 with 13:57 to play, but Vazquez was quick to extend the Blazer lead. UAB went on a 10-2 run over the next couple of minutes, backed by 2 Vazquez triples and a layup, and following the latter of the 3 the Blazers were leading 20-10 with 9:58 to play.
It was all blazers in the first half, and although it was mostly Vasquez, UAB was able to get some help from other scorers over the next stretch. Temple was able to cut it to 4, 22-18, with 7 minutes to play but that run was halted quickly.
An 11-0 run was in store for UAB without a single point from Vasquez and when it was all said and done UAB led 33-18 with 3:48 to play and were looking nearly unstoppable.
UAB closed the half on an overall 21-9 run and were rolling with some serious momentum as they headed into the break leading 43-27. Alejandro Vasquez had nearly half of the blazers 1st half points, scoring 21 and getting it done from 3 and on the drive. More importantly they had 12 first half assists to Temples 4, and their offense was flourishing while the Owls were stagnant.
Coach Kennedy said that Vasquez was able to step up in the first half, when Yaxel Lendeborg was unable too.
“I thought Yax was very, very tentative to start the game. AJ carried us, gave us the separation we needed to play with confidence,” Kennedy said
The second half wasn’t much different from the first for UAB, as they started the second half on a 12-2 run getting buckets from 4 offering players, and very quickly they jumped out to a 55-29 lead with 16:43 to play and Temple was on the ropes.
The lead hovered between 20-30 points for UAB for a majority of the first 10 minutes of the second half, however Temple made a push midway through to try to comeback. They went on a 9-2 run, and following a Shane Dezonie layup in transition, Temple got the lead down to 65-49, with 8:45 to play.
The Owls led by Hysier Miller fought hard to come back down the stretch in the second half but were just unable to break down what was close to a 30-point lead at times for UAB.
Miller was doing everything he could in this one, he scored 7 in a 9-2 run for Temple and with 3:21 to play the lead was brought down to 12. 78-66, however that was as close as it would get.
UAB quickly responded with a 7-2 run to close the game, finishing off Temple 85-69, and punching their ticket to the big dance as AAC conference champions.
The Blazers will be 1 out of 2 bids in the AAC and will take on San Diego State in the first round in Spokane Washington as a 12 seed. After the game Yaxel Lendeborg said he hopes his team can match what San Diego State brings to the table.
“I was watching them really closely last year. They’re a really good team, I hope we can match that and come out as the better team,” Lendeborg said.