Tide welcomes Aggies to SEC with last second victorAlabama’s men’s basketball team came back from a 26-15 first half hole to defeat Texas A&M on Saturday Jan. 19.
The Crimson Tide (11-6, 3-1 SEC) reclaimed the lead in the final seconds of the game to down the Aggies (12-5, 2-2) by a score of 50-49.
The Tide outscored Texas A&M 35-23 in the second half and shot 13-23 (56.5 percent), including 4-7 (57.1 percent) from three-point range.
“I thought it was a great character win today,” UA coach Anthony Grant said. “We had some adversity to start the game from an offensive standpoint; we really struggled. You’ve got to give credit to Texas A&M, and some of it was self-inflicted. But the thing we talked about at the half was that we could play better. We just needed to come out and do that.”
Alabama is now 10-1 when recording at least eight steals in a game this season. The Tide recorded 10 steals against the Aggies in its third-consecutive victory, which was the 2,500th game in the program’s history.
“We stepped up the pressure,” senior guard Andrew Steele said. “We knew they wanted to slow the tempo down, but we knew that it would help us if we sped it up. So, in the second half, in terms of with the pressure from our defense, we were a lot more aggressive.”
Trevor Releford led all scorers with 15 points, but all of those points came in the second half.
“I have to give credit to Texas A&M. They did a good job on me playing defense in the first half,” Releford said. “I just came out in the second half, took what they game me and didn’t try to force anything and try to create for my team.”
Trevor Lacey contributed 14 points and six rebounds, and Nick Jacobs posted eight points. Lacey’s clutch shot that came with only nine seconds left in the game sealed the win for the Tide.
“Coach drew up a play for me to come off a double screen in the middle and for Nick [Jacobs] to come ball screen,” Lacey said. “They switched the ball screen and I was able to get separation from the big and get a shot off.”
Texas A&M’s Elston Turner led the Aggies with 13 points in 31 minutes.
Grant praised Turner’s ability and the difficult shot he made late in the second half.
“He’s a really talented player. He can really score the basketball,” Grant said. “A lot of the things they do are to get the ball into his hands. He made about as difficult a shot as I’ve seen a player make at the end there. Levi [Randolph] couldn’t have guarded it any better. He was still able to get the shot to go in. I give him credit.”
The Tide will savor the victory now, but Releford and his teammates know they must improve to endure the rest of the SEC schedule.
“We’ve got to get better and better. We just can’t be satisfied,” Releford said. “It was a good win, but we’ve still got a lot of games ahead of us.”
Alabama will play host to the Kentucky Wildcats on Tuesday Jan. 22 in Coleman Coliseum. The game will tip off at 8 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN.
