Alabama Holds Off Red-Hot Hogs 68-67

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Coleman Coliseum was about to explode with energy after an and-one from James Rojas gave Alabama a 60-47 lead over Arkansas with 9:01 to go. A few minutes later, a three-pointer from Arkansas star JD Notae gave the Razorbacks their first lead at 65-64 since early in the first half.

Instead of folding after Arkansas retook the lead, the Crimson Tide continued to play tough on defense and turned to senior forward Noah Gurley who boldly drove it on Jaylin Williams for back-to-back buckets to give Alabama the 68-67 lead with 27 seconds left.

"Coach always tell us, if we got an advantage, go make a play," Gurley said. "So that kind of was just my mindset for the last two buckets.”

A last second heave from the Razorbacks went wide of the rim, and Gurley's final bucket proved to be the game winner as Alabama snapped Arkansas' nine-game win streak with the 68-67 win inside Coleman Coliseum Saturday afternoon.

"Our guys showed a lot of resolve," said Alabama head coach Nate Oats. "We got down after being up 13, and Noah scored two go-ahead buckets. Noah was huge for us late in the game."

On a day where no single player took control in the scoring column for Alabama, individual players stepped up at different moments. From the 9:14 mark to the 2:29 mark in the second half, freshman Charles Bediako was the only player to score for Alabama and went on a personal nine-point scoring run.

Midway through the second half, freshman JD Davison scored five straight points for the Crimson Tide to help build the big lead, and of course Gurley scored the final four points of the game when Alabama needed him most. Davison led Alabama in scoring with 11 points, followed by 10 from Shackelford and nine points from Bediako and Gurley each.

Davison said the message during the final chaotic minutes of the game was simple.

"Just stay together," Davison said. "We gonna fight together, and we gonna win together.”

Early on, Alabama picked up where it left off from its hot shooting performance against Ole Miss on Wednesday. The Crimson Tide opened the game shooting 6-12 from three, but then things started to slow down considerably. Alabama finished the day 7-29 from behind the arc and only went 1-13 in the second half.

On defense, Alabama did a good job of limiting the SEC's leading scorer in Notae. He picked up two early fouls and only played 3:44 in the first half. Notae averages 19.1 points per game and didn't score for the Razorbacks until the 16:47 mark of the second half. He finished with 12 points, three assists and one rebound.

"We just tried to make life difficult for him in every aspect," Gurley said. "And then him getting the two fouls early, we knew they weren’t going away. They’re still a good team, but that obviously helped, maybe threw him off his rhythm a little bit.”

Turnovers were a big problem for the Crimson Tide with a season high 24 total turnovers on the day. However, Alabama actually had more points off turnovers (28) than Arkansas (22.)

"There's too many guys turning the ball over that we're not asking to be primary playmakers," Oats said. "There's just no reason for it. Arkansas took a lot of charges, they play hard, got a lot of deflections, but if it had been 15, it would have been a whole different game. But 24 is way too many for high-level, skilled basketball players to have."

With the win, Alabama gets back to .500 (6-6) in SEC play and improves to 16-9 overall. The Crimson Tide will be back at home on Wednesday with a rematch against Mississippi State.

"We’ve got plenty of stuff to improve on, but that’s a big win," Oats said. "That was the hottest team in the SEC."

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