It was so nearly the same old story for Alabama basketball Tuesday night. Turnovers and a stagnant offense made a halftime lead evaporate, and Alabama was fading down the stretch. The same formula had seen Alabama drop several winnable games this season, including a road loss to Arkansas less than a week ago.
Tuesday night, however, senior Trevor Releford flipped the script.
The senior point guard’s late-game heroics, including 21 second-half points on his way to 26 overall and a game-winning three-pointer with less than a second to go, powered the Crimson Tide to a 67-64 victory over Ole Miss. The win, which snapped a 4-game losing streak, was one Releford said the team needed.
“It was joy. It was a lot of relief off the players,” Releford said. “We’ve been practicing hard, and we needed a win. We deserved it … I’m happy for everyone on the team … This was huge.”
Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy said he was anything but surprised at Releford’s performance.
“We all knew that the ball was gonna go through Trevor Releford,” Kennedy said. “That’s what a senior all-league player does, and he made a big shot.”
While the closing minutes of the game belonged to Releford, 18 points from senior Nick Jacobs and 15 points from Shannon Hale helped power the team to an early lead.
“It was great to see some other guys step up,” coach Anthony Grant said. “I thought Nick Jacobs’ effort tonight was huge. I thought Shannon was aggressive to get himself to the free-throw line … I thought Rodney Cooper was huge tonight with 10 rebounds.”
Kennedy was disappointed in his team’s performance, particularly with guard Marshall Henderson. The senior was held to 14 points, 5 less than his season average.
“We’ve seen almost everything as it relates to [Henderson],” Kennedy said. “We challenged him. He shot 3 free throws this game. It’s the first time he’s been to the foul line on the road in our last four games, and that was being fouled on a 3-point shot, so that doesn’t really count. We told him, ‘If they’re doing that, if they’ve got a big on you, you’ve got to drive to the basket.’ He chose to shoot 4-15.”
Alabama will travel to take on South Carolina on Saturday at 3 p.m.
