Sophomore John Petty Jr. matches career high with 30 points in losing effort
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Alabama men's basketball nearly pulled off an improbable upset, but could not overcome a 13-point halftime deficit and fell at No. 3/3 Tennessee, 71-68, in front of a sellout crowd of 21,957 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Sophomore guard
John Petty Jr. put on a show, finishing with 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting from the floor and 6-of-9 from deep, while senior
Donta Hall collected his league-leading ninth double-double of the year as he finished with 16 points and 12 boards in the loss. Hall also recorded his 700th career rebound in the process, becoming just the fifth player in program history to collect 700 rebounds (705) and 200 blocks (206) in his career.
"Give credit to Tennessee today," Alabama head coach
Avery Johnson said. "It was a great college basketball game that could have gone either way. They came out and jumped on us early, but we fought hard, didn't complain. We just put our heads down and kept working. Fortunately, we were able to play some of our better basketball in the second half. We got some stops, we were able to run in transition and just kept battling.
"John was just incredible in the second half. He got to his spots and converted. We ran the first play of the second half for him and he converted to get him going. It was just a lot of fun to watch. We couldn't get a stop at the end. We had (Admiral) Schofield pinned in the corner and pumped faked us and drove it to the basket. That was a big play."
The Volunteers (16-1, 5-0 SEC) led the Crimson Tide (11-6, 2-3) by 12 points at intermission, 44-32. However, Alabama came out on fire after intermission as Petty scored eight straight points to help spark a 13-0 run to begin the second half, giving the Crimson Tide its first lead of the game at 45-44. It was the first time a visiting team held a second half lead on the Vols' home floor this season.
From that point on, it was a back-and-forth contest that featured three ties and six lead changes.
Tennessee seemed to get back in control when it took a 55-49 lead with 12:48 left to play. Alabama would not back down, however, and responded with a 12-3 run over the next 3:21 to take its largest lead of the night at 61-58. Neither team would lead by more than one possession the rest of the game.
With the Tide clinging to a 65-63 advantage with 3:16 remaining, the Volunteers scored six of the next nine points to go up by one, setting up the dramatic ending that went in Tennessee's favor.
For the game, Alabama shot 42.4 percent from the floor and 38.5 percent from beyond the arc, while limiting Tennessee – the league-leader in scoring offense, field goal percentage and three-point field goal percentage – to just 43.8 percent from the field and 25 percent (3-of-12) shooting from beyond the arc. The Tide also outrebounded the Vols 41-36, which marks the 16th time in 17 games UA has won the battle of the boards.
Alabama will next return home to take on No. 18/20 Ole Miss on Tuesday, Jan. 22, at 8 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on SEC Network.
Alabama Men’s Basketball Falls at No. 3/3 Tennessee in Final Seconds, 71-68 - University of Alabama Athletics