Guards Jaden Shackelford and Keon Ellis each scored 18 points to lead the No. 14/13 Alabama men’s basketball team to a 73-68 victory over in-state foe South Alabama Tuesday night inside Coleman Coliseum.
Shackelford also added 10 rebounds to collect his second career double-double, while Ellis added six boards and three steals in the victory. Darius Miles was the only other UA player to reach double-digits at 10, while center Charles Bediako added eight points five rebounds and five blocked shots in the victory.
Coach Oats Postgame Comments
"You’ve got to give a ton of credit to South Alabama. I thought they came in and played hard. We track and keep count of both our and our opponent’s blue collar points and I thought they beat us in kind of an effort game. They took a bunch of charges, I think they took eight on us. They are well-coached and came ready to play. They outrebounded us, we turned it over more than them, we just fortunately made a few more shots than them. I give our guys a little bit of credit there in the middle of the second half. We kind of got it together, got some stops, made a run and did what we needed to. We got to get our defense picked up and tonight our offense really struggled too. Last game our offense was pretty good but we struggled that way tonight a little bit. Plenty of work to do on both sides of the ball here before we play again on Friday."
Team Stats
- Alabama improved to 3-0 to start a season for the first time since starting the 2017-18 campaign at 5-0
- The Tide won its 13th consecutive home contest, which is the most since winning a school record 24-straight home games from March, 2010 to December, 2011
- Bediako became the first Tide player to swat five shots in a game since Donta Hall did so on Jan. 27, 2018
- The contest featured eight ties and six lead changes, with the Tide leading for 19:28 compared to the Jaguars leading for 15:44
- Alabama shot 44.3 percent (27-of-61) on the night, while holding the Jaguars to 38.5 percent from the floor (25-of-65)
- Ellis tied a career-high 18 points, which was set vs. Louisiana Tech in the first game of the season
- Miles recorded his third game of double-figure scoring on the season and led all players with a plus-minus of +10
- Bediako won the Hard Hat Award
First Half
- The Tide got things going early on Tuesday night, jumping out to a 10-2 lead at the first media timeout thanks to a quick four points from Shackelford and a three from Ellis
- The Jaguars would answer by outscoring Alabama 22-9 over the next 7:51 to take a five-point lead at 24-19 with 8:25 left in the opening stanza
- Ellis and Shackelford combined to account for 15 of the Tide’s first 19 points to begin the game
- After USA took a 32-26 lead with 1:22 left to play, Alabama scored five of the final seven points in the half to trail by three at intermission, 35-32
Second Half
- Alabama forced the Jaguars into using their first timeout of the half with only 18:45 on the second half game clock after Noah Gurley and Bediako converted back-to-back buckets from inside the paint to take a one-point lead, 35-34
- After going back-and-forth over the next several minutes, Ellis drained a three-pointer from the corner to give the Tide the lead for good at 52-51 with 10:42 mark
- That trey would jumpstart a 10-0 run over the next 3:07 that gave Alabama its largest lead of the game, 59-51, with 8:14 remaining
- However, the Jaguars would not go away as they kept it a one possession game until Bediako hit two free throws with just under two minutes left to play to put the Tide up by four
- Alabama finished by connecting on 7-of-8 free throws to seal the victory
Up Next
The Crimson Tide will close out the four-game homestand to open the season when it welcomes Oakland University to Coleman Coliseum on Friday night at 7 p.m. CT on SEC Network+