The streak ends here: UAB powers its way past Wichita State basketball for road win
On the brink of its longest conference winning streak of the American Athletic Conference era, the flame of the Wichita State men’s basketball team was finally put out.
UAB looked every bit like a title contender on Thursday, answering every challenge by the Shockers on their home court and emerging with a 80-72 victory at Koch Arena.
The loss snapped WSU’s 6-game winning streak, as the Shockers (17-11) dropped to 7-8 in conference play. Meanwhile, the Blazers (19-9, 12-3 AAC) stayed in the race for the AAC regular-season title — one game back from Memphis.
WSU junior forward Corey Washington registered his eighth double-double of the season with a team-high 21 points, 10 rebounds, a season-high three blocks and two steals. Quincy Ballard notched his ninth double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds, while Bijan Cortes chipped in with five assists. But the Shockers turned the ball over 17 times and missed 10 free throws to hurt their cause.
UAB was led by Alejandro Vasquez, who matched his season-high with a game-high 29 points, and star big man Yaxel Lendeborg, who had 11 points, eight rebounds, six assists, two blocks and three steals.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
1. UAB prevented WSU from following winning formula
The same shots that were falling, the same rebounds that were being secured and the same loose balls that were being won stopped going in WSU’s favor on Thursday.
A lot of that credit falls to UAB, which played a physical brand of basketball and never allowed WSU to become comfortable on offense with a trapping defense that went into overdrive as soon as the Shockers crossed the half-court line.
Defense and rebounding have powered WSU to its midseason turnaround, but on Thursday, UAB was the tougher team who exerted its will on WSU — something the Shockers had been doing to their opponents.
WSU finished with 17 turnovers, many of which occurred on attempted passes over the top of UAB’s jungle of arms, and the Blazers fully capitalized with a 26-13 edge in points off turnovers.
Bad offense led to bad defense for WSU, which didn’t come close to generating nearly the same amount of stops as it had during its winning streak. And even though WSU once again won the rebounding battle 42-32, its dominance in second-chance points and paint points were nullified by UAB — a late burst put WSU ahead of UAB 17-14 in second-chance points and 44-36 in paint points.
2. Game unraveled for Shockers after flagrant foul
The second half began with UAB in control, but WSU at least in striking distance.
That changed with a controversial call, at least to the home crowd, by the veteran officiating crew of Doug Shows, Chuck Jones and Doug Sirmons to tag WSU forward Corey Washington with a Flagrant 1 foul with 14:02 remaining in the second half.
When the dust settled, UAB finished with a 4-point possession and WSU’s deficit grew from six to 10.
The play in question occurred when Washington secured a defensive rebound underneath his own basket and attempted to clear space by swinging his elbow closely to his body, which made contact with the head of UAB’s Alejandro Vasquez.
A whistle blew and an immediate call on the floor was not made, as the officials huddled around a monitor to watch a replay and then discussed the events for several minutes on the court — with boos reigning down from the rafters due to the extended break in the action.
WSU fans initially cheered when public address announcer Ted Woodward relayed a foul on Vasquez had been called, but then the boos returned when the flagrant on Washington was announced.
Vasquez made both free throws for the flagrant and WSU initially got a stop, but Quincy Ballard rushed his outlet pass and it sailed out of bounds. Given a second chance, the Blazers capitalized with a tip-in by Bradley Ezewiro to cap an 8-0 run and open up the first double-digit lead, 53-43, of the game.
WSU never came within striking distance again.
3. UAB answered the call on the road
During WSU’s 6-game winning streak, no opponent had scored better than 1.08 points per possession in a game.
In Thursday’s first half, UAB made 55% of its shots from the floor and torched the Shockers for 1.21 points per possession to open up a 39-34 halftime advantage.
An early heater by Xavier Bell staked WSU to an early 13-6 lead, but UAB managed to methodically build a lead through easy buckets at the rim and a steady diet of Alejandro Vasquez mid-range jumpers.
A Ja’Borri McGhee triple capped an 11-2 run by the Blazers midway through the first half to turn a 3-point deficit into a 6-point lead, an advantage that the visiting team held through halftime.
UAB finished the game scoring 1.18 points per possession.
Upcoming schedule for Shocker basketball
at North Texas, 8 p.m. (ESPN2) on Monday, March 3
at Rice, 7 p.m. (ESPN+) on Thursday, March 6
vs. Tulsa, 1 p.m. (ESPN+) on Sunday, March 9
vs. TBD in AAC tournament, TBD on Thursday, March 13
American Athletic Conference basketball standings
13-2, Memphis (23-5)
12-3, North Texas (21-6)
12-3, UAB (19-9)
10-5 Tulane (16-12)
8-7, Florida Atlantic (15-13)
8-7, East Carolina (16-12)
7-8, Wichita State (17-11)
7-9, Temple (15-14)
6-10, South Florida (13-16)
5-10, Tulsa (11-17)
4-11, UTSA (10-17)
4-12, Rice (13-16)
3-12, Charlotte (10-18)
This story was originally published February 27, 2025 at 10:18 PM.
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