🏀 Men's Basketball Rallies Late, Earns 57-55 Victory Over In-state Rival Auburn

[Alabama Men's Basketball]

Senior guard Rodney Cooper's put-back with six seconds remaining capped an Alabama rally and lifted the Tide to a dramatic 57-55 victory in front of a sold out crowd inside Coleman Coliseum."There was a lot of adversity for us tonight," Alabama head coachAnthony Grant said. "I am so proud of the effort we got tonight out of everybody. It was a great team win and our guys showed great character, a lot of toughness, and resiliency for the win."

The Crimson Tide (13-6, 3-3 SEC) trailed by as many as nine points with under 10 minutes to play, when Alabama put together a late comeback.Levi Randolph scored nine of the Tide's final 12 points to lead the comeback.

Junior Ricky Tarrant added nine points, but was disqualified with 8:11 left and Alabama trailing 47-39, due to picking up a second technical. However, that only spurred the Tide as Alabama stole the momentum and went on a 16-4 run over the next 6:43 to regain the lead, 53-51, with 1:28 left.

Both teams traded baskets over the next minute and Auburn's KT Harrell sank a pair of free throws to tie the game at 55-55, setting up Cooper's heroics.

"They were going to Levi," Grant said. "Levi did what he should have done. He took his time, he tried to make a good move and he made it. Cooper saw an opportunity to get to the glass like we have been preaching, and it was great to see him be able to go get that and finish it. And then the defensive stop at the end of the game that is what it should come down to for us. I'm so proud of our guys to be able to come up with that stop."

Alabama led at halftime, 25-23, and led by five points, 30-25 early in the second half. However, the Tide went on a scoring drought midway through the second, which allowed Auburn (10-9, 2-4) to go on a 10-0 run and eventually build a nine-point lead, 44-35, with 9:58 left in the game.Randolph led the Crimson Tide with 18 points and seven rebounds on the night. Sophomore forward Shannon Hale added nine, while Cooper put up eight. Jimmie Taylor led a tough Tide defense with six blocks, all coming in the first half.Alabama will next be in action when it plays its third game in six days as the Tide welcomes the Florida Gators to town on Tuesday at 8 p.m. CT on ESPN.

From Rolltide.com—Continue reading...

 

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Here’s a way to describe the offensive basketball struggle between Alabama and Auburn on Saturday night — until the final minutes there was a realistic chance the Iron Bowl football game would be higher scoring than what transpired on the basketball court.

Alabama came away with the 57-55 SEC victory before a sold out crowd of 15,383 in Coleman Coliseum, but it wasn’t easy.

Both teams struggled offensively, partially from the tight, aggressive defense.

They both shot around 40 percent from the field and better than 25 percent on 3-pointers, but shots were contested and easy shots missed.

Statistically, it was an evenly contested match. That led to physical play to make the difference.

Contact escalated slowly into the second half. Words were exchanged. Fouls became harder, and bench warnings were issued.

The turning point in the game came when Alabama starting point guard Ricky Tarrant was ejected with 8:10 left for picking up his second technical foul. He was called for two flagrant fouls from delivering elbows — just another night in the Alabama-Auburn rivalry.

Tarrant left the game with nine points and a rebound. His exit, however, inspired the Crimson Tide.

Alabama was down 47-39 at the time, but the Crimson Tide came back to tie the score with 2:13 left on a Levi Randolph put-back and foul, and took the lead on his subsequent free-throw shot.

“That’s what home crowds do,” Auburn’s KT Harrell said. “They support their team in tough times. That’s not why we lost. We didn’t really box out, rebound. They started crashing the boards. You get second chance points you get energy and momentum. That’s how quickly things chance.”

Randolph put the Crimson Tide (13-6, 3-3) ahead again by two with 42 seconds left in the game before Auburn (10-9, 2-4) tied the game one more time.

Alabama put the ball in his hands to make the game-winning shot, but Randolph missed. Rodney Cooper, however, was there for the putback with 4.7 seconds left in the game.

The Tigers called a timeout to set up their last shot. Their attempt was contested and wasn’t close as time expired.

Randolph led Alabama in scoring with 18 points and had seven rebounds. He played most of the second half with three fouls, but stayed aggressive on offense.

“Everybody was playing hard,” Harrell said. “Everyone wanted to win. We respect them. They respect us. We know how big the rivalry is.”

Fouls in general made the game sluggish, and both teams were in the bonus by the middle of the second half. Illegal screens and hand checks were common.

Malcolm Canada, Jordon Granger, K.C. Ross-Miller and Harrell played the second half in foul trouble for Auburn.

Three Auburn players reached double digits in scoring, led by Harrell with 22. Cinmeon Bowers had 14, and Antoine Mason added 13.

Alabama freshman forward Riley Norris made his second career start in 19 games. He started in place of Michael Kessens, who was first off the bench and still played 24 minutes. Kessens scored four points and tied for the team lead in rebounds with seven.

Norris has been a hustle spark off the bench most of the season, but his energy was used early. He was in foul trouble in the middle of the first half, and was limited to three points and grabbed a rebound in eight minutes.

Sophomore forward Jimmie Taylor played an inspired defensive game with six blocks in the first half. He was close to his career high in with seven set against Appalachian State earlier this season.


Decatur Daily—Continue reading...

 

[TerryP]

Just sayin'...

 

[UAgrad93]

57-55 in this age of basketball. Grant survives against possibly the shittiest team the Barn has put on the floor in a long time.

 

[psychojoe]

Typical Pearl team, defensively. He coaches them to hold on the inbounds plays. Tarrant's methods for getting out of the holds was what got him in trouble. Kareem used to hack the arms of defenders holding him. If I were Grant I would complain to the SEC office about the non calls on their holds.

Great that we found a way to win when we were so flat emotionally for much of the game. Maybe Levi should start taking over the game earlier.

 

[TerryP]

57-55 in this age of basketball. Grant survives against possibly the shittiest team the Barn has put on the floor in a long time.

ESPN3 this afternoon: UVA vs VT. What ya wanna bet that game has a lower score total?

Typical Pearl team, defensively. He coaches them to hold on the inbounds plays. Tarrant's methods for getting out of the holds was what got him in trouble. Kareem used to hack the arms of defenders holding him. If I were Grant I would complain to the SEC office about the non calls on their holds.

Great that we found a way to win when we were so flat emotionally for much of the game. Maybe Levi should start taking over the game earlier.

Speaking of inbound plays...truly a WTF moment last night with less than five on the clock and the call is?!?! I have a hard time believing that was called from the bench, but I can't think of any other reason they'd choose to try to work from the backcourt.

 

[Bamabww]

Alabama wins thriller over Auburn

Cecil Hurt
TideSports.com Columnist


Saturday night's Alabama-Auburn basketball game won't go down as a classic of the series, in any sport, except in one category: desire.

That was enough for Alabama - barely.

The Crimson Tide, powered by senior captain Levi Randolph and a timely putback by its other senior, Rodney Cooper, survived the Tigers with a 57-55 victory, rallying from an eight-point deficit in the final 7:25 to snap a three-game losing streak.

Alabama had erased that deficit but Auburn's K.T. Harrell tied the game at 55-55 with a pair of free throws with 41 seconds to play. Alabama called a timeout with 24 seconds remaining but came up with only a contested jump shot by Randolph as the shot clock expired. That shot missed, but Cooper made it to the backboard untouched, grabbed the rebound and put it back in with 5.8 seconds remaining to give Alabama the lead.

"The coaches send me to crash the glass in that situation," Cooper said. "Levi had carried us down the stretch. I'm just glad I was there to make the play."

Auburn then called a timeout with 4.7 seconds remaining to set up its last play.

"It was actually a play we beat Arkansas with (at Tennessee)," Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. "We were setting a high screen for Tahj (Shamsid-Deen) and we just didn't get the screen set cleanly. If we do, Tahj comes clean but instead he just had to try to get something to the basket."

The shot missed badly and Alabama (13-6, 3-3) batted the rebound away as time expired.

Neither team established an offensive rhythm in the first half, but Auburn (10-8, 2-4 SEC) seemed more energetic as the second half began, building a lead of as many as eight points. That seemed like even more of an obstacle when Alabama's No. 2 scorer, Ricky Tarrant, was ejected for what Grant called "an inadvertent elbow," resulting in a technical foul, his second.

"There was a long delay in that stretch, and we just said 'Let's win it for Ricky, let's do it for our brother and not for ourselves."

On the ensuing Auburn possession, Randolph had a steal and dunk that energized the crowd and the player. Randolph went on to score 11 of his 18 points during Alabama's comeback in the final 7:41 of play.

Harrell led all scorers with 22 points.

Alabama will be back in action on Tuesday, hosting Florida.



.

 

[UAgrad93]

ESPN3 this afternoon: UVA vs VT. What ya wanna bet that game has a lower score total?

Sitting at 30-27 at the half? Gonna be close @TerryP!

 

[TerryP]

Isn't this some shit, @uagrad93



Bet you thought "football score" when you saw that.

 

[UAgrad93]

I will say this about that UVA/VT game @TerryP, they were getting after it on defense! You didn't see a lot of wide open shots at all. Good hard nosed defense! Buzz Williams had VT ready.