No. 10 Alabama's Last Minute Rally Comes up Short in 79-78 loss to Davidson
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama was trailing by 10 points with two minutes left with the game seemingly out of reach. After a couple of three-point plays and two steals, Alabama was right back in it.
With 4.4 seconds left, Alabama's Jahvon Quinerly went to the line for a one-and-one with the chance to tie the game trailing 79-77 to Davidson. Quinerly made the first shot, but could not sink the second and Davidson (9-2) secured the rebound and the 79-78 upset win over No. 10 Alabama (9-3) in the C.M Newton Classic in Legacy Arena Tuesday night.
"The craziness of this last 48 hours, it’s magical," said Davidson head coach Bob McKissop.
He personally thanked Alabama coach Nate Oats for scheduling the game at the last minute after both teams had opponent cancel on Tuesday. McKissop said most teams don't like to play the style of basketball that Davidson plays.
"It is difficult if you’re not out there talking, if you don’t watch film, if you’re not disciplined— which is the main things," said Alabama forward Noah Gurley. "So if you don't do any of those three things, that’s a hard offense to guard which they showed.”
Oats said that Davidson had the three best shooters of any team they've played this year. For Oats, Alabama's problem on Tuesday wasn't offense, but instead the defensive intensity that only seemed to show up when his team was trailing late.
"It’s good to know that they don’t have quit, they’re going to keep fighting," Oats said. "It takes some maturity to actually play that hard the whole game though. I do think we had some fight, but you guys saw it, we played a lot harder when we got down.
"If you've got that in you to play that hard when you're down, why isn’t it there when the game starts at 0-0? Or when you have a lead and you're trying to put a team away? We’ve got to get a killer instinct about us. We’ve got to get a maturity about us.”
In the first half, Alabama didn't have an answer for the three-point shooting of Hyunjung Lee and Foster Loyer of Davidson. In the second half, the Crimson Tide couldn't stop Michael Jones and Luka Brajkovic for the Wildcats. All four players finished in double figures with Brajkovic and Jones leading the way with 22 and 21 points respectively.
Davidson came into the came as the fourth-best three-point shooting team in the country and that trend continued against the Tide.
"Their three main shooters, Loyer, Lee and Jones, ended up going 10-18, so we didn’t do a good job defensively," Oats said.
Jaden Shackelford led Alabama in scoring with 20 points after going 0-for last time out against Jacksonville State. Juwan Gary also had 15 points including three big three-pointers.
In the early minutes of the first half, both teams struggled to get things going from the floor. Then, it truly became a game of runs. Davidson went on a 19-2 run to hold a 23-12 lead as Alabama went on a nearly seven-minute long scoring drought. That drought was ended by a Gary three-pointer.
Then Alabama went on a little bit of a run to take a 35-34 lead heading into the final media timeout of the half. That would be the last lead Alabama would hold in the game. The Wildcats closed the half on a 7-0 run to take a 41-35 lead into halftime.
Davidson went on a 9-0 run early in the second that made it look like they were going to be able to put the game away with a 52-39 lead. Alabama kept climbing its way back into the game and eventually tied the game at 64 with a layup from Gurley.
"There in the second half, we just couldn’t get stops when we needed to get stops," Oats said.
Even though Alabama made a furious comeback in the final two minutes, it ultimately came up a free throw short.
“It’s not exactly what you want going into Christmas break, but I don’t know how many wakeup calls we’re gonna need to pick up the defense," Oats said. "But we’re not going to be able to win games in the SEC at a high level until we decide to guard.”
