The second year of the Anthony Grant era started with a bang Tuesday as the University of Alabama men’s basketball team defeated the Talladega College Tornadoes 96-60 at home in the Crimson Tide’s first exhibition game of the year.

It took all of three seconds for the Tide to get going, as sophomore Tony Mitchell scored a quick two points to set the tone for the rest of the night. From then on, it was all Tide, as Alabama rolled to a convincing victory over the Tornadoes. “I thought it was a very good contest for us, having the opportunity to play Talladega,” head coach Grant said. “I think it’s good for our team. I thought [coach William Brown’s] team came out with great purpose and really attacked us.” In the first half alone, Alabama outscored and out-rebounded the Tornadoes in the paint, 28-8 and 23-19, respectively. Despite three lead changes and the Tide being down by six at one point, the Tide used a 15-0 run against the Tornadoes spanning eight minutes to gain momentum. With the play from the Tide, they jumped out to a 46-35 lead at half time. “I didn’t feel like we had control of the game at all in the first half,” Grant said. “We had runs in the game, which gave us the lead, but I felt like Talladega did a great job of putting themselves in position in the first half.” Alabama carried its momentum into the second half. Indeed, the Tide extended its lead to 23 points with a little over 11 minutes remaining and continued to widen its lead to 40 points. Junior JaMychal Green said his team played well, despite showing inconsistency at times. “I think we did a great job,” Green said. “Started out slow in the first half, but in the second half picked it up. I think we played together. Did a lot of good things even though we messed up a little bit.” Many new faces to the basketball team got playing time as well, with freshman Trevor Releford starting in the game for the Tide. Releford said though he was nervous at the start of the game, he competed well, leading the Tide in scoring with 17 points. “Yeah, there was some first game jitters at first,” Releford said. “But I kind of got over it. I think it was after the first layup I made, I just stopped kind of getting nervous and played my game.” Despite their performance against the Tornadoes, Grant said his team still has many areas to improve, both offensively and defensively. One thing that stuck out to Grant was three-point shooting. In the game, the team went two for 11 from the three-point line. “It’s either we’re taking bad shots, or we’re not good shooters,” Grant said. “And the players will tell you, ‘Coach, I need to take a better shot because I’m a good shooter.’”