Redshirt freshman Retin Obasohan picked a great time to have the second half of his life. After a struggle of a first half, 0-for-4 from the floor and all five points from the free throw line, the redshirt freshman exploded for nine second-half points to end the game with 14 in the 66-54 win over Stanford.
Alabama will host its NIT quarterfinal game on Tuesday night against the winner of the Denver-Maryland game, with the Terrapins being the No. 2 seed.
Alabama got a game-high 16 points from Levi Randolph, then 10 from both Trevor Releford and Nick Jacobs for its four double-digit scorers. Devonta Pollard led the Crimson Tide with eight rebounds to go along with four points.
The Crimson Tide had foul trouble on its side in the second half, as the Cardinal committed its seventh team foul of the second half with over seven minutes to go in the second half. After that point, Alabama hit 10 of its 12 free throw attempts, ending the game with a 84.6 percentage from the charity stripe (22-26).
The Cardinal was led by Chasson Randle with 11 points and also had Robbie Lemons score in double-digits with 10. Stanford’s leading scorer Dwight Powell was held to just two points in 24 minutes after missing a great portion of the first half with foul trouble.
You can read about the first half by itself by reading the Halftime Report.
The two teams traded baskets in the first 72 seconds of the game, giving the No. 8 seed Northeastern Huskies a 3-2 lead.
After that, the No. 1 seed Alabama Crimson Tide took just 5:29 to assemble a 15-0 run that gave Alabama a 17-3 lead. The commanding lead would eventually dwindle down to the halftime score of 28-23.
Alabama got seven points from junior point guard Trevor Releford in the 15-0 run, plus three more from sophomore Rodney Cooper. Releford entered the locker room with a game-high seven points, also adding in three steals, three rebounds and an assist.
Cooper ended the half with six points while redshirt freshman guard Retin Obasohan came off the bench and added five.
Alabama’s leading rebounder was Moussa Gueye, coming down with four, three on the offensive end. Fellow big man Nick Jacobs had his first half cut short by accumulating his third personal foul with 3:04 left in the first half.
Northeastern responded with a 11-2 run in the later stages of the first half that set up a late three-pointer from Jonathan Lee to cut the deficit to five. Northeastern is led by forward Reggie Spencer, a Tuscaloosa native, with six points.
Trevor Releford had 14 points in Alabama’s win in the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament quarterfinals over Tennessee. (AP photo)
Here’s the AP report from Alabama’s 58-48 win over Tennessee in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament on Friday. The win gave the Crimson Tide the right to face Florida at noon CST on Saturday with a berth in the SEC Championship Game on the line. There are also a couple of quotes from postgame at the bottom of the post.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Levi Randolph scored 15 points Friday as No. 4 seed Alabama defeated No. 5 seed Tennessee 58-48 in a Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinal between two teams seeking to improve their postseason credentials.
Alabama (21-11) advanced to a Saturday semifinal against No. 13 Florida, the tournament’s top seed. Florida (25-6) trounced LSU 80-58 in its quarterfinal.
This game was considered one of the most intriguing of the day because both teams are considered to be on the NCAA tournament bubble.
Tennessee and Alabama had split two close regular-season meetings, with Alabama winning 68-65 at Tuscaloosa on Jan. 12 and the Vols surviving 54-53 in the Jan. 26 rematch at Knoxville. This game followed a similar pattern, as neither team pulled ahead by more than five points in a first half that featured three ties and four lead changes.
Alabama pulled away in the second half by wearing Tennessee down with its pressure defense.
Tennessee (20-12) shot 32.1 percent (18 of 56) overall, 50 percent (7 of 14) on free throws and 21.7 percent (5 of 23) on 3-pointers. After making six of its first seven shots Friday, Tennessee went 12 of 49 the rest of the way.
Trevor Releford scored 14 points for Alabama, which shot 41.3 percent (19 of 46), 78.9 percent (15 of 19) on free throws and 50 percent (5 of 10) from 3-point range. Nick Jacobs had six points and a career-high 12 rebounds.
Josh Richardson scored 16 points for Tennessee, which lost for just the second time in its last 11 games. Jarnell Stokes added 12 points and 13 rebounds for his 15th double-double of the season, the most by a
Tennessee player since Bernard King had 19 in 1976-77.
Tennessee star Jordan McRae had been averaging 24.6 points over his last seven games, but he scored just nine points and shot 3 of 13 Friday while struggling with foul trouble.
The Vols made six of their first seven shots and went on an early 9-0 run to grab a 13-8 lead, but they cooled off from there as Alabama quickly caught up.
Alabama had plenty of success driving to the basket early on with Releford and redshirt freshman Retin Obasohan, a reserve guard who hadn’t even played in the Tide’s two regular-season games with Tennessee.
Tennessee lost the lead by getting too dependent on its perimeter attack. The Vols attempted nearly as many 3-point shots (13) as two-pointers (14) in the first half.
The Vols trailed 44-41 midway through the second half when Trae Golden and Armani Moore missed potential game-tying 3-pointers. Alabama followed with a 6-0 run to seize the momentum and grab a 50-41 advantage. Jacobs made consecutive baskets and McRae picked up his fourth foul during that critical spurt.
Tennessee responded with five straight points to cut Alabama’s lead to 50-46, but that’s as close as the Vols would get.
Also, a couple of quotes from postgame.
Alabama coach Anthony Grant: “You have to take your hat off to Tennessee. I thought they came in to this game playing great basketball right now as a team, and we knew we would have to come out and compete at a high level today. I’m really proud of our guys for answering that bell. It was a highly contested game, physical game, a game of inches, and it’s a good win.”
Junior point guard Trevor Releford: “I think we are really successful when we get out in transition, just play up-tempo, push the ball and try to get easy layups. We tried to do that today. For the most part it worked.”
Anthony Grant coaching the Crimson Tide to its revenge win over Auburn Tuesday night. (AP photo)
Here is the full story from Tuesday night’s Iron Bowl of Basketball, as the Crimson Tide beat Auburn. At the bottom, you’ll see video of Alabama coach Anthony Grant’s press conference afterwards.
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TUSCALOOSA — Never has a basketball team felt better about itself on the offensive end of the floor after scoring 61 points and shooting 39.3 percent from the floor in a winning effort.
Drawing the regular-season series with rival Auburn to an even draw at one after losing on the road Feb. 6 was enough, but it was more satisfying to know that a groove is in place after the 61-43 win over Auburn.
“I thought the improvement we made over the last 20 days showed because we didn’t let (early offensive struggles) rattle us,” Alabama coach Anthony Grant said. “We had some success and built a lead.”
A large part of the offensive renaissance is junior point guard Trevor Releford, who followed his 36-point explosion Saturday against LSU with a 21-point game on 7-for-13 shooting against the Tigers.
“I think I’ve been preparing better recently,” Releford said. “I’ve been more focused and when I’m focused, I have a lot of confidence in my shot.”
Grant added, “I thought Trevor did a great job. He was locked-in. He was energetic, and I thought that was contagious to our team.”
Fellow point guard, redshirt freshman Retin Obasohan, created opportunities for himself via the dribble-drive to the tune of 10 points. Obasohan also had four rebounds, two assists and a steal. Trevor Lacey had a dozen points for the Tide.
“That’s something I’ve been working on,” Obasohan said of his dribble penetration abilities. “Coach always gets after me to use my athleticism. I guess today was one of those days I was able to make some plays for my teammates.”
When they were not scoring, the guards found 11 of Alabama’s 13 assists setting up big men for offensive opportunities, paving the way for sophomore forward Nick Jacobs to put up 10 points on 5-7 shooting.
“I thought Nick Jacobs came in in the first half and gave us a big boost,” Grant said. “Alabama attributed the upgrade in offensive output to halftime adjustments. Alabama’s shooting percentage in the 20 minutes after the intermission was 14 percent better than the 20 minutes preceding it.
“I guess the message at halftime was we have to come out and hit first,” Releford said. “We just can’t let up, because we know we were going to come out and get their best shot. We just had to hit first.”
Grant added, “When we get good looks, trust your preparation, go play. Don’t be hesitant. I thought the guys did a great job of responding to that.”
The Tigers have done the exact opposite, losing rhythm going down the stretch. From Christmas Day to Jan. 16, the Tigers scored 75.8 points per game. Since then, Auburn has averaged 57.75 points per contest. Auburn’s 43 points was the fewest it has scored against Alabama since 1949.
“If you can put a finger on it, it would be easily fixed,” Auburn forward Rob Chubb said. “People aren’t creating how they should be. Aggressiveness on the offensive end is one of the reasons.”
Chubb led the Tigers in scoring with 13 points. Frankie Sullivan continued to slump for Auburn. He finished 1-of-9 shooting for six points.
Auburn coach Tony Barbee added, “Did you watch the game? Missing layups, missing open shots. We probably missed 20 layups tonight. How are you going to win a game when you miss 20 layups?”
Trevor Releford led the Crimson Tide with five assists and also contributed nine points, three rebounds and two steals in the win. (AP photo)
Here’s the story Daily Bama Blog contributor Brett Hudson sent for print publication in Sunday editions across the state, with press conference video at the bottom.
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One day before a pivotal home game against South Carolina, Alabama coach Anthony Grant said he did not care that his team was averaging only 54.25 in its last four games, but that his team had won four out of its last five.
Grant got both a win and improved offense in Alabama’s 68-58 win over South Carolina.
“Today’s game, to me, was a game of spurts,” Grant said. “I didn’t like the way we finished the first half, but I thought we came out with better energy in the second half.”
Alabama had two big scoring runs in the first half that built an insurmountable lead: one 12-0 run to give Alabama a 17-4 lead with 12:37 in the first half and another 14-1 run to make for a 23-point lead with 5:55 left to go in the first half. Alabama knocked down five of nine three-point attempts in the two runs.
“We were able to, in the first half, penetrate and create help and they did a great job of moving the ball around,” Grant said. “I thought we had great looks. Even the ones that didn’t go in, I thought we had great looks and it was good to see our guys be aggressive.
“We had a spurt there where we were able to get the crowd back in the game and flip the momentum.”
Trevor Lacey led the Tide with 17 points, six of which coming from behind the three-point line. Redshirt freshman guard Retin Obasohan also added two three-point baskets and ended with eight points, nearly a career-high.
Lacey also contributed four assists, one below junior guard Trevor Releford for the team lead.
“My teammates are always on me about shooting more,” Lacey said. “I just like getting my teammates involved in some looks. I just try to let the shots come to me that I feel comfortable with.”
Alabama’s defense was an instigating force, also, forcing 18 turnovers. Sophomore guard Levi Randolph led the way with four steals, while Lacey, Releford and forward Nick Jacobs all had two each.
“We expected them from a defensive standpoint to really get after it and we knew we had to bring that energy, too,” Grant said. “We felt like we could have success with the press and certain halfcourt situations if we locked in and did it right.”
The win puts the Crimson Tide alone in second place in the SEC and making believers out of the competition.
“They’re in it, they aren’t going anywhere,” South Carolina coach Frank Martin said, a longtime friend of Grant’s. “A team that plays the kind of defense they play, with the unity and passion they play, they’re in it.”
