Alabama basketball fouls its way to frustrating home loss against Tennessee

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — An already-abbreviated Alabama basketball lineup was stripped to its bare bones Tuesday night. The Crimson Tide entered a must-win matchup against Tennessee with just three regulars over the size of 6-foot-5. By the final whistle, all three were relegated to the bench.

Playing without 6-foot-7 forward Herbert Jones, who suffered a fractured wrist against LSU last week, Alabama was forced to give extended minutes to its other three bigs — Alex Reese, Javian Davis and Galin Smith. At least that was the plan.

After hacking their way into early foul trouble, the trio bowed out individually within a three-minute span late in the second half, crippling the Crimson Tide in an eventual 69-68 defeat to the Volunteers.

Davis was the first to leave, picking up his fifth foul with 4:31 to play. Seconds later, Reese was whistled for the fifth time with 4:06 remaining. Smith was the last to exit the game, picking up his fifth foul with 1:57 left.

That left little hope for Alabama (12-10, 4-5) to pull out a crucial victory. Instead, the Crimson Tide saw its losing streak extended to three as it blew a 15-point lead to a beatable Tennessee team. The Volunteers (13-9, 5-4) snapped a three-game skid of their own with the victory.

“We needed this one bad,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “We obviously miss Herb. If we plan on having any chance in the postseason we can’t just lose every game when Herb’s out.”

Driving to the lane down 67-65 with less than 10 seconds remaining, Alabama point guard Kira Lewis Jr. dished the ball to Jalen Forbes in the paint. The 6-foot-4 guard was quickly swallowed up by 6-foot-6 Tennessee wing Yves Pons, who blocked the game-tying attempt before sinking two free throws to ice the game for the Volunteers.

Following the game, Oats said he contemplated calling a time out on the crucial possession before ultimately deciding to let Lewis drive to the basket.

“I kind of saw who Kira had on him, thought he could be him,” Oats explained. “If you call a timeout, they get the matchups the way they want them.

“I thought that was probably our best way to score,” Oats said. “It didn’t work out. I didn’t think Forbes would end up getting a layup. Playing without a real center in there, it kind of messed up our spacing. Obviously, you don’t have a guy in there at all, and you’ve got everybody spread.

“That’s Jaylen’s call as to whether he thought he had to cut open for a layup or whether he should have stayed out for a 3. I was hoping that the matchup Kira had maybe he’d get to the free-throw line. It seemed like they were getting a fairly favorable whistle on the other end. I think if he would have drove, maybe forced a little more contact, maybe get to the free-throw line and tie the game up.”

Much to the dismay of a frustrated home crowd, Tennessee drew its fair share of whistles. The Volunteers got to the free-throw line 32 times compared to just eight trips to the charity stripe for the Crimson Tide.

“It’s was just tough,” said Alabama guard John Petty Jr., who drew a technical following a foul in the second half. “I feel like every time we got ready to get on a run or something, just the whistle didn’t go our way tonight.”

A towering Tennessee team that featured nine players over 6-foot-5 took advantage of Alabama’s depleting roster, outrebounding the Crimson Tide 24-14 in the second half. That was coupled with 20 Alabama turnovers which led to 21 Tennessee points. All of the above could come as the finishing blow to the Crimson Tide’s tournament hopes.

"Rebounding, turnovers, fouling, it's become a reoccurring problem for us," Oats said. "And it was definitely a big problem tonight... Until we get those three things fixed, it's going to be hard to win any decent games against a good team."

Lewis led the Crimson Tide with 19 points on 8 of 15 shooting but turned the ball over five times. The point guard was joined by Jaden Shackelford, who scored 12 points on 4 of 8 shooting. Alabama saw the return of guard James “Beetle” Bolden who missed the previous two games due to illness. The graduate transfer scored 5 points on 1 of 8 shooting over 23 minutes of play.

Pons dominated the boards for Tennessee, recording a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds. John Fulkerson led the Volunteers with 22 points and was joined in double figures by Jordan Bowden with 20.

Alabama hits the road as it takes on Georgia (12-9, 2-6) on Saturday at 5 p.m. CT. The Crimson Tide beat the Bulldogs, 89-74, in Tuscaloosa in the lone meeting between the two teams last season. Georgia entered the week losers of four of its last five games.

The Bulldogs are led by freshman guard Anthony Edwards, who is projected as a lottery pick in this year’s NBA Draft. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound shooting guard leads the team averaging 19.3 points per game, second in the SEC behind Mason Jones who dropped 30 points on Alabama over the weekend.

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