Crimson Tide left on Saturday as if they really didn’t want to be in Athens, GA, falling behind by 29-15 in the first 12 minutes of the game. With nothing to play for except pride, coach Nate Oats gathered his troops and managed a fantastic last 28 minutes for his team. The tide improved to 21-6 and 16-2 in the SEC. Georgia dropped to 14-11 and 7-11 at the conference.
The tide started to turn with the game inspired by holder John Petty and Keon Ellis, Jahvon Quinerly and Darius Miles off the bench. The kicks did not fall, but the effort and defense helped to bring the team to reduce the deficit to just 36-30 in the interval, ending the semester with 15-7.
In the first half, Bama hit just 14-38 for 37%, including only 2-12 in the three-point range, and also failed the only two free-throw attempts. The UGA blasted the nets 14-29 to 52% and 4-8 deep, but made only 2-5 free-throw attempts.
Crimson Tide exploded through the gates in the second half a new team, taking control of the game with a 15-2 run in the first minutes of the first half. Oats was asked what he said at halftime to facilitate such a run and replied “I don’t know, I think I do some shots.” The team listened. The Tide took the lead with 37-36 when Jordan Bruner hit a three-point attempt at 18:56 from the end. Herbert Jones played a few minutes in the first half because of – surprise! – dirty problem, but scored eight quick points. The dogs couldn’t stand in front of Jones and he got to the edge with impunity.
Alabama managed to maintain a three to ten point lead most of the way, but Georgia did not give up. Bulldog owner Shavir Wheeler did much of the work, scoring on the track, hitting free throws and deflecting the ball to open pitchers. KD Johnson hit several three-point attempts to bring the dogs back closer, just when Tide was ready to take the deadly shot.
Bama also shot himself in the foot with careless twists just when the opportunity arose to take full control. With 11:48 left, UGA cut the lead to 57-54 and then 59-57 with 11 minutes left. The Tide took it back to a margin of 10 points, 71-61, 8:34 remaining, but the resilient dogs kept coming back. With 46 seconds remaining, Keon Ellis hit the biggest shot of the day, draining a three-pointer from the corner to make the lead six in 85-79. The shot was reminiscent of the James Rojas SEC title winning three at Starkville last weekend. Petty and Quinerly hit two free throws each in the last seconds to secure the 89-79 victory.
In the second half, Tide heated up scoring 59 points in 19-30 shots with 8-10 out of three. The free throw was still a bit of a problem with 13-18. For the game, the team finished 33-68 off the field for 48%, 10-22 on three for 45% and 13-20 on the range for 65%. Tide commanded the boards with 45 rebounds, 14 assists, 10 steals, seven blocks, but 22 hits – 11 each time. The UGA finished with 46% of shots in 29-62, shots from 8-19 deep (42%) and hit just 13-23 free throws. The Dogs caught 32 rebounds, had 18 assists, 11 steals, a block, but committed 20 turnovers.
Quinerly continued his strong game recently and led the team with 18 points from 5-8 shots and 6-6 on the free throw line. Jelly added four rebounds and four assists. Petty had a strong game with 15 points and seven rebounds in 5-8 shots. Jaden Shackelford scored 15 points and added six rebounds, two assists and two steals. Joshua Primo came out of his fear to score 11 points and had five rebounds. Jones did Jones things, 10 points, six rebounds, four assists and a steal and a block. Ellis scored nine points and had five rebounds. Alabama had 33 bench points, 46 points in painting and 21 points out of turns.
Oats praised his team for altruism, mentioned that he was small with Jones playing “the 5”, which limited the minutes for Bruner, Alex Reese, James Rojas and Juwan Gary, but they were all teams, saying “they just wanted to win the game, and he didn’t care about his minutes. This whole group is the team first. ”Gary remained as active as ever and had four rebounds in just eight minutes. Oats also had great regard for the minutes Darius Miles gave the team in the first The freshman has a rebound, a steal and a block in his limited time on the court.
SYNOPSIS
Considering the circumstances, this was a major victory on the road for Tide. Playing only for pride and falling early, the team showed their courage and maintained their composure to return to victory.
NEXT
The best season in years will continue next Friday at 11am CT in Nashville. Tide will play Kentucky or Mississippi State for the third time this season in their opening SEC Tournament game. Bama swept the two teams this season.
Roll Tide #BallAndOats