The Alabama men’s basketball team lost to Maryland 58-57 in the quarterfinals of the NIT on Tuesday March 26.
Sophomore guard Trevor Lacey missed a shot at the buzzer that would have sent Alabama to Madison Square Garden for the semifinal round of the National Invitational Tournament.
Head coach Anthony Grant said his team did a good job of executing the final play and praised Maryland’s defensive pressure against the play he drew up.
“Lacey was able to free himself, and I thought he got a pretty good look,” Grant said. “Unfortunately for us, it didn’t go in.”
The Crimson Tide was eliminated from the postseason tournament with the loss.
“It’s a disappointing loss, obviously tough to end your season like that,” Grant said.
The Tide trailed the Terrapins 31-24 at halftime after a sloppy first half and never regained the lead. Alabama closed the gap to one point several times but was unable to overtake Maryland.
Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon said his team’s defensive pressure was great all throughout the game. Its ability to deny Alabama at the rim led to a crucial road victory for the Terrapins.
“We’ve been talking about trying to get a great road win and to get it in the postseason against a team that I thought should have been an NCAA Tournament team with 12 wins in the SEC is just a great win for us,” Turgeon said.
Maryland’s center Alex Len was the star of the night, as Alabama couldn’t find an answer for him defensively. The 7’11” sophomore led the Terrapins with 15 points and 13 rebounds. He also blocked five shots.
Dez Wells and Jake Layman each scored 13 points for Maryland.
The Terrapins shot 50 percent (23-46) from the field, knocking down 47 percent (7-15) of its 3-pointers.
“Give Maryland credit,” Grant said. “I thought they really played aggressively, did a really good job and I thought really controlled the first half.”
Sophomore guard Levi Randolph led Alabama with 15 points. Rodney Cooper tacked on 13 points and five rebounds, and Trevor Releford scored 11 points.
The Tide shot 40 percent (22-55) from the floor but struggled from behind the arc, converting just 27 percent (4-15) of its shots.
Maryland outrebounded Alabama 33-27 and outscored the Tide 13-8 in second chance points. The Terrapins bench also outworked Alabama’s reserves 18-11.
Alabama ended its season with a 23-13 record, and Grant is already looking ahead to next season and what this team must do to improve.
“For us to get where we want to get to, we’ve got to get our program to where we can win against teams of Maryland’s caliber and teams we’ll have to face as we move forward,” Grant said. “That’s how I look at it. It’s all a learning experience. Now what do you do with it?”
Maryland will advance to the semifinal round on Tuesday April 2 to meet the winner between Virginia and Iowa.
