No. 4 Alabama men’s basketball blew past Georgia 90-69 on Saturday, extending its winning streak to five games.
A pair of early turnovers from guard Mark Sears led to empty possessions for the Crimson Tide, sparking momentum for the Bulldogs and leading to the game being tied at 10 with 14:53 on the clock.
Alabama got its own spark after guard Aden Holloway hit a 3-pointer. This opened the floodgates for forward Aiden Sherrell to score 8 straight points, part of a 14-0 run that gave the home team a 24-10 lead with 11:46 left in the half.
Head coach Nate Oats didn’t seem surprised by Sherrell’s performance, noting that he was voted MVP of the team’s most recent practice.
“He’s played well and deserved to play some minutes,” Oats said.
Things then came to a fast stop for Alabama, as the team went nearly six minutes without scoring and allowed Georgia to tighten the score up to 24-18 with 6:23 left before halftime.
The teams traded buckets through sloppy play for the next several minutes, but the Crimson Tide ended the half strong with 6 straight points in the final 1:37, making the score 39-28 as the teams headed to the locker rooms.
Two main themes persisted through the first frame of play for the Crimson Tide. The first was turnovers, as the team committed 12. The second was the surprising play of Sherrell, who was the only player on the floor who scored in the double-digits, with 10 points in the first half.
The second half featured the teams going basket for basket, with the margin holding steady at 11 with 14:24 on the clock and the score at 52-43.
The momentum pendulum shot into the direction of the Crimson Tide after Georgia head coach Mike White was given a technical foul at the 13:58 mark, which sparked a 14-2 run and extended the lead to 66-45 with 10:47 left.
Alabama pulled away from that point and dominated the game’s tempo, resulting in its margin widening to as many as 26 points with 1:26 left and the game ending in a 21-point win.
Though Oats was pleased with the victory, he expressed frustration with the 20 turnovers that his team committed.
“We’re going to spend a lot of time on Monday and Tuesday figuring out how to not turn the ball over, because we’ve had this issue way too many times,” he said.
He credited his team’s win to great defensive effort and talked about the possibilities if the offense also stepped up its play.
“If we can take that mentality and that effort on the defensive end and clean up the offense, we’ve got something heading in the right direction,” Oats said.
Sears put together a solid performance, scoring 20 points and dishing out six assists. However, he also struggled with turnovers, coughing the ball up six times.
After the game, he noted that keeping a clear head was important in shaking off the turnovers and positively impacting the game.
“Coach did a good job of taking us out a few times when we got in our heads, and when we got back into the game, we were able to be ourselves,” Sears said.
Forward Grant Nelson secured a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Sherrell contributed 12 points and seven rebounds.
Guards Holloway and Chris Youngblood each notched 10 points. Youngblood converted two out of his three long-range attempts, while Holloway had five assists.
Alabama will kick off a two-game road trip next Saturday versus Arkansas at 7 p.m. CT. The game will be streamed on ESPN.