The Alabama men’s basketball team defeated the New Mexico Lobos, 74-67, on Monday to advance to the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament.
Alabama received big offensive performances from sophomore forward Tony Mitchell and freshman guard Trevor Releford, who had 23 and 20 points, respectively. Charvez Davis added 14 points. Mitchell also had six rebounds and Releford had six assists.
“I thought this was a very good matchup today,” Alabama head coach Anthony Grant said. “New Mexico is a very talented team. We knew coming in that we would have to do a great job on the defensive end of the floor. That’s what we talked about and that’s what we prepared for.
“If you look at the final numbers, I thought our guys did a very good job from a defensive standpoint. The three-point shots at the end made the score a lot closer, and we didn’t close it out with the free throws, but overall I thought it was a great performance by our guys. I’m proud of the effort.”
It was a tale of two half’s for the Tide’s offense. In the first half, the Tide scored only 30 points and shot less than 40 percent from the field. Alabama was without its leading scorer, JaMychal Green, who sat out most of the game with foul trouble. Green was held scoreless in the first half. He finished the game with only six points, but had seven rebounds in limited minutes.
In the second half, the Tide’s offense caught fire. Alabama shot 75 percent from the field, making 15-of-20 shots from the field. Twelve of those shots were from inside the three-point line. Their defense helped fuel scoring runs that allowed them to build an 18-point lead late in the game. Defense has been Alabama’s calling card all season.
“We picked our defense pressure up and pressed full-court,” Mitchell said. “We wanted to make them uncomfortable and take advantage of the fact that some of their key guys were playing extra minutes. We wanted to wear them down and get the ball out of their key players’ hands.”
New Mexico was led by Kendall Williams, who had 18 points and six rebounds. Phillip McDonald and Drew Gordon scored in double-figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Alabama will host the Miami Hurricanes in the quarterfinals of the NIT on Wednesday. Alabama is one win away from a trip to the NIT Final Four in New York.
“There are a lot of good teams, and this is a great tournament with a great field,” Grant said. “We have a very tough game coming up Wednesday. We were fortunate to win today and we are going to get prepared for a tough game on Wednesday.”
