Shrugging Aside Ball Screen Pressure, UAB Crushes UNC Asheville
Kennedy records 400th win as Lindsay-Martin and company navigate UNCA's aggressive hedges
Several statistics encapsulate the dominance UAB exhibited during Sunday’s 72-47 victory over UNC Asheville. Returning to Bartow Arena for the first time since 2023, the Bulldogs scored a paltry 0.73 points per possession, led for less than four minutes, and recorded zero second-chance points. Even an uninspired second half couldn’t stop the Blazers from securing Andy Kennedy’s 400th career win, as UAB parlayed a season-low five turnovers into total control of the possession battle.
Not visible in the box score, however: the key to the game Kennedy identified during his postgame presser.
“The way [UNC Asheville was] blitzing ball screens, they were really hedging that ball screen hard,” Kennedy said. “So, our guards, if we could get it out of there clean, we were going to have plays behind the [screen]. And that’s what happened all night.”
From the game’s opening seconds, the Blazers were able to generate consistent, reliable offense by exploiting their opponents’ ball screen coverage.
Moments after Daniel Rivera won the tipoff, Evan Chatman set a slip screen for Salim London on the left wing, pretending to screen UNCA guard DJ Patrick but instead cutting to the basket.
The simple action immediately prompted a communication breakdown amongst the Bulldogs. UNCA forward Myles Mayfield, Chatman’s defender, hedged the screen and jumped out to pressure London. Looking unsure of himself, Patrick, London’s defender, briefly followed Chatman before also getting in London’s face. No Bulldog tagged the streaking Chatman, who received a pass from London and scored one of the easier buckets he’ll get all season.
It was mistakes like these that hampered the visitors in the early going. On the following possession, another mishandled slip screen forced UNCA center David Hermes to scurry back to the hoop and foul Rivera in order to prevent a free layup. Less than a minute later, the Bulldogs aggressively hedged a Chance Westry-Rivera side pick-and-roll, only for a lack of help defense to generate a (missed) open triple for Chatman.
Although UNCA successfully blitzed Ahmad Robinson on the Blazers’ next trip down the court, stripping the UAB guard and converting his turnover into a transition layup, the Green and Gold’s backcourt otherwise navigated the ball screen pressure with composure. The slip screen continued to prove effective in defeating the Bulldogs’ hedges: at the 16-minute mark, UNCA guard Justin Wright and forward Toyaz Solomon forced Robinson to pick up the ball, but he made up for his earlier mistake by finding the rolling Chatman deep in the paint. The forward proceeded to muscle in a tough two-pointer. Soon after, a heavily-defended Westry delivered a beautiful pass to a slipping Rivera with a hand in his face.
Wary of Rivera, UNCA center Sage Tolentino hedged Robinson less aggressively on the Blazers’ next ball screen; Robinson made the Bulldogs pay by draining a triple.
UNCA suffered fewer and fewer coverage breakdowns as the game progressed, but their ball screen defense remained an Achilles’ heel. This was in large part due to the performances of UAB’s rollers, and specifically KyeRon Lindsay-Martin, who scored a game-high 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting. All of the forward’s first-half points (sans a last-second tip-in) came off of hedged ball screens. While Chatman and Rivera dove all the way to the hoop to score their early buckets, Lindsay-Martin twice found success operating in space — once at the 12:31 mark, when he received a pass on a short roll and converted a floater over Wright, and once at the 0:57 mark, when London dragged out a screen and found Lindsay-Martin for a midrange jumper.
Lindsey-Martin also found himself the beneficiary of an overaggressive hedge at the 10:31 mark that allowed Westry to spin away from two defenders, barrel downhill, and generate an open layup.
This technique — “rejecting” the screen, or catching the defense by surprise by going in the opposite direction of the screen — was used multiple times by both Westry and Robinson to create space and prevent the Bulldogs from deploying their preferred coverage. Even when it wasn’t presented with easy passes, the Blazer backcourt was rarely stumped or overwhelmed by UNCA’s pressure, firing back with rejections or fitting assists into tight windows.
In spite of the Bulldogs’ aggression, UAB committed turnovers on just two ball screens during the first half, with one an unforced Lindsey-Martin throwaway. The forward made up for it, however, on the other side of the break. The second period was slower-paced than its predecessor and saw the Blazers’ ball screen rate decline; on the occasions UAB did go to the ball screen, UNCA often displayed a more conservative drop coverage that succeeded in slowing down a Green and Gold offense perhaps running out of energy before Christmas break. Westry couldn’t finish over Mayfield at the 17:28 mark; Tolentino swatted Westry at the 12:57 mark; Mayfield denied Chatman at the 6:18 mark.
Although Westry had his second-half moments, backing down Wright for a tough layup before rejecting another screen to get downhill and draw free throws, he made just one of his five field goal attempts. Robinson, on the other hand, found himself even more out of rhythm, connecting on just one of his eight field goal attempts. Deprived of the same looks available to them in the first half, neither Chatman nor Rivera scored a point. The only consistent source of production was Lindsay-Martin, who recorded 16 second-half points to his teammates’ combined 14.
Neither Tolentino nor Hermes, both of whom have three or more inches on Lindsay-Martin, could contain the self-described “dog” in drop coverage as he interspersed powerful rolls to the rim between transition dunks. In a fitting conclusion to his spectacular outing, Lindsay-Martin locked Patrick out of the play with an effective screen, beelined into the paint, and bailed out a pivoting Westry with a difficult, left-handed finish.
The Blazers didn’t reinvent the wheel on Sunday; rather, they attacked UNCA’s ball screen coverage with slips and rejections, got steady, composed play from their guards, and took advantage of impressive efforts from their rollers, especially Lindsay-Martin, who Kennedy said did a “terrific job” of “catching, of finishing in traffic.”
“It is a big confidence booster,” Lindsay-Martin said. “It just shows me and just reinstills in my brain, like, what I can do even if I’m not trying to score, just finding open spots and just being available and active. And that’s the kind of the mindset I went into today.”