he No. 2/2 Alabama men's basketball team continued its early-season home stretch with a hard-fought 88-79 victory over the Arkansas State Red Wolves inside C...
rolltide.com
The Crimson Tide shot 44 free throws in a whistle-heavy matchup
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The No. 2/2 Alabama men's basketball team continued its early-season home stretch with a hard-fought 88-79 victory over the Arkansas State Red Wolves inside Coleman Coliseum on Friday night.
In a whistle-heavy game that saw 52 combined fouls, the Crimson Tide weathered the storm and dominated the interior on the offensive end and in the rebounding battle as well, notching its second win of the year.
Mark Sears led Alabama with 19 points, with 11 of them coming from the free throw line. Four more players reached double figures as well including
Clifford Omoruyi (12),
Labaron Philon (12),
Grant Nelson (12) and
Derrion Reid (10).
Omoruyi nearly came away with his first double-double of the season, grabbing nine boards along with his dozen points in just 17 minutes of action.
Arkansas State was led by Kobe Julien on the offensive end with his 20 points, six rebounds and three assists.
Head Coach Nate Oats Postgame Comments
"That's a really good team we just played. I thought they were well coached. They got great talent. Played hard. We needed to be pushed. I think they exposed some stuff we got to work on. They gave us everything they had. It was a tie game with seven minutes to go in the game. I think our guys have to realize, like the teams we put on the schedule, if we don't play well, we don't move the ball, we play selfish like I thought we did tonight at times, we're not going to beat these teams. I thought we did a good enough job on the offensive glass and you know, defensively we were solid at times.
They exposed some stuff some stuff on the defensive side, but we really won the game on the offensive boards. I mean, we had 21 second chance points and they only had seven. I thought we made a big point of emphasis on keeping them off the offensive boards, I thought we did a decent job of that. We did a good job of getting our offensive glass, but a lot of other areas we didn't shoot it well, had a lot to do with them. We didn't get out in transition very much, ended up with more fastbreak points than we did and it had a lot to do with them. I thought they had a good game plan defensively.
A lot of their staff came from here, Brian was with me for eight years. They're doing a great job, that's a really good roster. I thought Brian did a really good job tonight, they did a great job and I think they're going to win a lot of games this year."
TEAM STATS
- Friday's matchup marked the fourth contest between the Red Wolves and the Crimson Tide
- Foul trouble became a quick theme for both teams as the matchup saw 52 combined fouls
- The charity stripe likewise became an area of importance as both teams shot a combined 80 foul shots
- Alabama dominated the offensive glass, grabbing 14 offensive rebounds, turning it into 21 second chance points
- The Crimson Tide established its interior presence as well, scoring 42 of its 88 points in the paint
- Nate Oats' squad shot 27-for-66 (41 percent) from the field, 6-for-31 (19 percent) from three and 28-for-44 (64 percent) from the line
- Alabama had success sharing the rock as well, with eight players tallying at least one assist
FIRST HALF
- Alabama claimed the first points of the matchup, following a layup inside by Derrion Reid at 19:24
- After trading a couple of baskets, the Crimson Tide held the Red Wolves scoreless for 3:40 while going on a 6-0 run
- From there, it became a free throw battle from both squads as Arkansas State scored eight straight points from the line, meanwhile Alabama's lead grew to double-digits
- The Crimson Tide entered the bonus before the under-12-minute media timeout, but struggled to take advantage at the charity stripe, sinking just seven of its first 15 attempts at the line
- The Crimson Tide found itself in foul trouble as well, putting Arkansas State in the double bonus during the closing minutes of the period
- After maintaining a 16-point lead with six minutes remaining, the Red Wolves clawed its way back with an 18-5 run to close the half
- Alabama outrebounded Arkansas State 26-19 at the half, including seven offensive rebounds
- The Crimson Tide shot 11-for-30 (37 percent) from the field and 17-for-27 (63 percent) from the line in the period
SECOND HALF
- Scoring came at a premium to start the second half as Alabama hit just one of its first 10 attempts from deep
- Alabama instead established its presence in the paint, scoring 16 of its first 21 points of the half down low
- Once again, foul trouble began to hinder the Crimson Tide on the defensive end as three players (Omoruyi, Stevenson, and Holloway) had four fouls apiece with over eight minutes remaining
- Taking advantage of the Alabama foul trouble, Arkansas State found its way back into the matchup to tie it up at the 7:08 mark
- Needing a spark, Mohamed Dioubate tipped in a putback layup which led to a 15-4 run to grow Alabama's lead once more
- Hanging on to its rediscovered momentum, the Crimson Tide held its ground and closed out the matchup by sinking its last five free throws in a row
UP NEXT
- Alabama returns to Coleman Coliseum on Nov. 8 to take on the McNeese State Cowboys.
- The Crimson Tide will tip-off at 6 p.m. CT with the contest airing live on SEC Network.
11-08-24 MBB vs Arkansas State
Full Gallery
