If nothing else, the Alabama basketball team can shoot free throws.
Against Missouri, the basement-dwellers of the SEC, the Crimson Tide stepped to the charity stripe a season-high 34 times, making 24 en route to a 62-49 win over the Tigers.
Alabama made its last field goal on a breakaway with eight minutes to play in the game, when junior guard Retin Obasohan found trailing senior guard Levi Randolph with a right-handed behind-the-back dish for a dunk, putting Alabama up 38-48. The last fourteen points for the Crimson Tide all came from free throws.
“Like we talk about every day, it’s a 40 minute ball game,” Randolph said. “The game is going to have its ebbs and flows, its ups and downs. We just have to continue playing, no matter what, until the end of the game.”
Obasohan started in place of the injured Ricky Tarrant, running the offense and putting up 12 points and a game-leading 8 rebounds and 4 steals, with several other defensive plays that forced a turnover or a low-efficiency shot from the Tigers. After averaging 28 minutes per game last season, the Belgian has struggled to find consistent playing time, averaging only 13 minutes, 2 points and 1.7 rebounds per game.
“You just know that you’re always going to have help no matter what, because he’s all over the place,” Randolph said. “He has a lot of energy. He always has your back. Lose the ball and he’ll dive on the floor. He doesn’t mind doing the little things: taking charges, going after loose balls. He just makes you feel comfortable because he always has your back.”
Randolph led all scorers with 20 points off 6-of-11 shooting, the kind of offense Alabama has come to expect from its captain and leading scorer.
“What I saw from Levi was what I see every day in practice,” Obasohan said. “He’s just a tremendously gifted player and just the amount of work he’s put in all season to improve his game is truly manifesting in what he’s done so far this year. What I saw today is no more than what I see in practice everyday.”
Alabama put forth its best offensive performance since its win at Tennessee on January 10, when it held the Volunteers to just 38 points. The Crimson Tide was able to restrict the Tigers to 32 percent shooting and sent them to the line just 13 times.
“I thought it was a great effort by our team tonight,” Alabama coach Anthony Grant said. “On the defensive end, I thought we were outstanding in both halves. Coming into the game we were really concerned about three-point shooting and their ability to get out in transition. I thought our guys really locked in defensively in terms of being able to take that away from them. Our defense created offense.”
Alabama returns to the court in Baton Rouge, Louisiana against LSU at 5 p.m. CT on Saturday.
