Alabama Basketball Roars Past Ole Miss, 82-64
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama men's basketball got off to a solid start in SEC play on Tuesday night in Coleman Coliseum, defeating Ole Miss by a score of 83-64.
It was a hard-fought, gritty effort shown by both the Crimson Tide and the Rebels. Through 40 minutes, both teams combined for 50 total fouls with Alabama having slightly more with 27.
That being said, the fouls never hindered the Crimson Tide from obtaining a scrappy victory.
"I thought it was a good win," Alabama coach Nate oats said after the game. "I thought our guys played hard, I thought we moved the ball well. We had a few too many turnovers — they turn people over — but we did have 15 assists. I liked the energy, I thought the bench was great."
The first half was all Alabama, as the Crimson Tide opened the game with an 8-0 run. Ole Miss would cut the Alabama lead down to three with a 9-0 run of their own with 7:49 remaining, but the Crimson Tide remained firmly on top.
One primary reason that Alabama had such a successful first half was the effort displayed by senior forward Alex Reese. In addition to seven points, four rebounds and two assists, Reese also had a massive block in the final minutes of the first half that drove Coleman Coliseum into a frenzy. Combine that block with an alley-oop pass that was dunked into the basket by John Petty Jr., and Alabama left at the half with all of the momentum in their favor.
"Reese has completely turned everything around," Oats said. "His attitude is great, he's all about the team — he volunteered to come off the bench at the beginning of the year to me — he's really what you're looking for in a senior. You pull for him to do well when he does those type of things as a leader so I was really happy for him.
"I thought Reese was great. He was huge for us."
At halftime, the Crimson Tide led the Rebels 43-34, with Alabama having led for all 20 minutes.
After Ole Miss opened the second half with a 6-2 run, Alabama started to pull away. The Rebels would cut the Crimson Tide's lead to eight with 7:30 to go, but it was the closest that Ole Miss would come. Senior wing Herb Jones fouled out with roughly six minutes left in the game, but his absence on the defensive end of the court would not be missed. Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats celebrated the win by emptying the bench for the final minute of play.
At the final buzzer, Alabama emerged victorious over Ole Miss, 82-64.
Sophomore guard Jahvon Quinerly had a solid night, leading the Crimson Tide in points with 24 and totaling five rebounds on the night. Sophomore guard Jaden Shackelford led Alabama with seven rebounds.
"I feel like it went well," Quinerly said. "Three good days of practice [led] up to this performance. I feel like we're coming together as a team and we're starting to get stops on the defensive end and that's where the offense starts, so as long as we stay locked in we're going to be fine."
In addition to Quinerly, the Crimson Tide had two other shooters to register double-digit points. Petty tallied 16 points against the Rebels while Alex Reese scored 10.
In total, the Crimson Tide was out-rebounded by the Rebels 47-46. However, Alabama made up for it in second-chance points, where it dominated Ole Miss 18-9.
"I thought we got great minutes from everybody throughout the game," Oats said. "We got out-rebounded I believe by one which is a little bit disappointing but our defense was good enough to hold them. We still won the second-chance points."
Alabama moves to 6-3 overall and is 1-0 in SEC play. Ole Miss falls to 5-2 and is 0-1 in the conference after its opening SEC game.
This story will be updated with video once it is distributed.
