Alabama basketball survives sloppy start to down South Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — There will be times later this season when No. 14 Alabama basketball will be punished for sloppy starts like this. Fortunately for the Crimson Tides, Tuesday night’s game against South Alabama proved more forgiving.

Alabama fumbled its way to 14 first-half turnovers, including nine over the first nine minutes. It lost the battle on the boards, struggled from beyond the arc and found itself trailing midway through the second half. Still, the Tide’s talented roster was able to snap out of its slump in time to secure an ugly 73-68 victory.

"It's definitely a good sign when you face adversity to not give up and fight back," Alabama guard Keon Ellis said. "Just going through that a couple of games, just not giving up and fighting, we can see what we got as a team."

Alabama (3-0) was finally able to shake off its slow start in the second half as it used a 14-2 run to go up 59-51 with 8:14 remaining. The scoring spurt was spurred on by Ellis and Darius Miles as the duo combined for 12 of the 14 points on the run.

South Alabama (1-2) stormed back to tie the game with roughly three minutes remaining. However, Alabama was able to hold off the visitors as JD Davison capped off an 8-2 run with a thunderous dunk to extend Alabama’s lead to 70-64 with 44 seconds remaining, ending any chance of an upset.

Alabama finished the game with a season-high 22 turnovers while South Alabama gave the ball away 21 times. Despite the Tide's advantage in talent, it was hard to separate the two sides as South Alabama won the rebounding battle 40-39 while Alabama had a 12-10 advantage in second-chance points.

"A ton of credit to South Alabama, I thought they came in and played hard," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. "We track our blue-collar points and theirs. They beat us in the effort game. They took a bunch of charges. I think they took eight on us. Well-coached, ready to play. I don't think our attention to detail was great."

Jaden Shackelford recorded his first double-double of the season, scoring 18 points to go with 10 rebounds. The lefty was the Tide's only consistent option from deep, hitting 4 of his 10 shots from beyond the arc while the rest of the team went 3 of 17 from 3.

Ellis continued his strong start to the season, recording 18 points and six rebounds. Miles netted 10 points on 4 of 7 shooting while leading the team with a plus-10 contribution margin. Charles Bediako won the team's Hard Hat Award, recording 8 points and five rebounds to go with a team-high five blocks and three steals.

South Alabama was led by LSU transfer Charles Manning, who scored a game-high 23 points. Auburn transfer Javon Franklin also had a big night for the Jaguars, recording a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Alabama will look to continue its perfect season Friday night when it hosts Oakland at 7 p.m. CT inside of Coleman Coliseum.

Frustration from a forgettable first half carried over after the break as Oats was whistled for a technical foul after stepping onto the court to argue a call. The head coach, who was unhappy about an uncalled traveling violation, had to be held back by assistant Bryan Hodgson as he voiced his displeasure from in front of his bench.

“I thought the kid traveled. It looked like he dragged his feet two feet to me,” Oats said. “So, a technicality, I was on the floor. You’re not supposed to step on the floor to discuss that with them, so it was the correct T. So, hopefully, every coach who argues a call and steps on the floor gets the same T call.”

Interestingly enough, technical fouls have been somewhat of a good luck charm for Oats as Alabama is 9-0 in games where he has been T’ed up.

“I don’t think we’ve lost when he’s got a tech since he’s been here,” Shackelford said. “I feel like that’s a good stat. He’s into the game, he’s very passionate about the game. I mean, obviously, we don’t want techs because we don’t want to give the other team free points, but it just fires us up more to double down and get stops to win the game.”

Added Oats: “It’s never been on purpose, but think it’s true. I guess if we’re in trouble, I’m going to go ahead and get a T on purpose from now on.”