The Alabama men’s basketball team downed the Arkansas Razorbacks 59-56 on Thursday Jan. 31 in Coleman Coliseum. The Tide improved to 13-7 (5-2 SEC) on the season despite a second half resurgence by the Hogs.
“I thought this game was, for us, about finding a way to win,” said head coach Anthony Grant. “There were a lot of things in the game that didn’t go our way. I thought we started off really well from an offensive standpoint, then we hit a lull late there in the first half that continued throughout the second half.
“Give Arkansas credit. I thought they fought, they scrapped and they did a great job defensively making it difficult for us to get into our actions and run our action. But our guys stayed the course and found a way to win.”
In the first half, Trevor Releford and Nick Jacobs paced the Tide with eight points each. Alabama shot 52.2 percent (12-23) from the field in the first half, compared to Arkansas, which converted 36 percent (9-25) of its shots.
Jacobs’ ability to penetrate the paint with his size helped vault Alabama to a 30-23 lead at halftime. His favored hook shot proved beneficial over the smaller Arkansas defenders, but Jacobs trailed off in the second half and so did the Tide.
Alabama struggled early in the second half and only shot 30.4 percent (7-23) from the floor.
Grant compared the Tide’s second half collapse to a flat tire.
“I thought we were in a good rhythm. I thought we were flowing and then it stopped,” Grant said. “It seems like we just lost a spoke there; the tire went flat. We could just never get it back to where it was.”
Alabama committed a season high 21 turnovers. Sophomore guard Levi Randolph commended the relentless Hog defense for causing so many mistakes.
“Their defensive pressure kind of barred us a little bit, but at the same time, we were careless with the ball.” Randolph said.
But Randolph praised his team for overcoming Arkansas’ comeback and securing the victory.
“It’s a good feeling to know when adversity hits you you can fight through and keep playing for the full 30 minutes,” he said. “Sometimes things are going to happen, but we’ve got to continue to play through.”
Trevor Lacey led the Tide with 14 points along with six rebounds. Releford added 12 points, and Moussa Gueye tallied 7 rebounds and four blocked shots.
The Tide outrebounded Arkansas 38-29 but fell behind in steals 7-8, a rarity for the team this season.
Alabama will quickly turn around and travel to Nashville to battle the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday Feb. 2 at 3 p.m.
Grant said Memorial Gymnasium is not the average gym that his players are used to seeing, but they will approach it the same as any other game.
“It’s different, but the game is always going to be decided in those lines,” Grant said. “It’s going to be 94-by-50 with 10 foot rims. So, we’ll play. We’re used to that.”
Randolph was also named to the Capital One Academic All-District 4 First Team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America. Randolph has maintained a 3.48 GPA while at the Capstone.
