25th-Ranked Alabama Men's Basketball
Downs Memphis In 2017-18 Season Opener
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| Photo Credit: UA Athletics |
ANNAPOLIS, Maryland – The 25th-ranked University of Alabama men's basketball team opened the 2017-18 season in style with a big win over a big name. The Crimson Tide defeated the Memphis Tigers 82-70 Friday night in the Veteran's Classic which was hosted on the campus of the United States Naval Academy. Leading all scorers was Alabama's sophomore phenom Dazon Ingram pumping in 20 points. Bama junior Donta Hall recorded his first career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds to go along with his five blocks.
Alabama men's basketball head coach Avery Johnson wasn't pleased with the start of the contest, saying, "We didn't get off to a great start, we fouled too much. We've been hit by the injury bug, but the guys in uniform got their heart in the right place in the second half.
"We've talked about being prepared to play all 40 minutes. It's part of our off-season conditioning, and part of our grueling but efficient practices. We knew we had to go deep into the rotation and we have enough that if we play the right way, we can win."
UA recorded a whopping 20 first half fouls, more than it totaled in 17 full games last season. Every Tide player went to the locker room with multiple fouls except for Ingram who picked up only one and led Alabama with 12 points. Junior Lawson Schaffer played a career-high nine minutes in the first half alone while tying his career high with five points.
Five Alabama players reached double figures in the season opening contest. In addition to Ingram and Hall, junior Avery Johnson Jr. put up 13 points coming off the bench, while freshmen Herb Jones was right behind with 12 and John Petty added 11 to the tally. Freshman Alex Reese also stepped up big for Bama, contributing eight points, nine rebounds, four steals and three assists.
The Crimson Tide shot 45.6 percent (26-of-57) from the field and 40.7 percent (11-of-27) from three-point land, while holding Memphis to just 38.3 percent from the floor and 11.8 percent from beyond the arc. Alabama also led in points off turnovers 25-9.
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Alabama Women's Basketball Opens 2017-18
With Big Win Over Alabama A&M
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| Photo Credit: UA Athletics |
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – The Alabama women's basketball team opened the 2017-18 season in fine style on Friday night, completely dominating an out (wo)manned Alabama A&M team. The Crimson Tide did pretty much what it wanted on offense, while completely shutting down the A&M defense en route to a 90-32 season-opener in Coleman Coliseum.
University of Alabama women's basketball head coach Kristy Curry said, "I loved our crowd. That was definitely the best home opening crowd we have had, especially on a Friday night before everyone heads to Starkville (for football). Our men were on TV, and I know there were a lot of folks watching that pregame, but congratulations to Coach Avery (Johnson) and his guys on a great win over a very good Memphis team. Again, I loved our energy, effort and passion tonight. One word we talked about is consistency, and we can handle anything that happens when we have that kind of energy, enthusiasm and passion about our actions."
Leading the Bama offense was freshman Ariyah Copeland coming off the bench in her first collegiate game with 16 points and banging the boards with 15 rebounds. Not to be outdone in the scoring department, senior Ashley Williams matched Copeland with 16 points of her own. Senior Hannah Cook stepped up really big in the contest scoring 14 points and a career-high six steals while senior Meoshonti Knight rounded pumped in 10 points of her own on the night to round out the double-digit scorers for the Tide. In all, Alabama had nine different players scoring in the game.
The UA defense held the Lady Bulldog offense to just 32 points in the game and forced A&M to turn the ball over 31 times. The Bulldogs percentage of shooting on the night was held to a lowly 25 percent last night. Sophomore Ashley Knight picked improved her career block total to 97 after adding seven blocks to the tally in the contest.
Alabama women's basketball returns to the hardwood this Monday, November 13th to battle Utah. The game is set for a 7 p.m. CT start, and will air live on SEC Network+.
| Game Stats | AAM | UA |
|---|---|---|
| FG% | .246 | .431 |
| 3FG% | .077 | .333 |
| FT% | .500 | .750 |
| RB | 37 | 53 |
| TO | 31 | 13 |
| STL | 1 | 18 |
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| Photo Credit: UA Athletics |
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| Photo Credit: UA Athletics |
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UA's Gilbert Kigen Wins
NCAA South Region Cross Country Title
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| Photo Credit: UA Athletics |
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – In the end it came down to two runners. Two runners from the same team. University of Alabama junior Gilbert Kigen outran teammate Alfred Chelanga to capture the individual men's title at the 2017 NCAA Cross Country South Regional Championship on Friday at UA's Harry Pritchett Running Park in Tuscaloosa.
Kigen completed the 10,000-meter race with the eighth-fastest time at Bama's home course, coming in with a time of 29:44.5. Chelanga finished second in the contest, finishing with a time of 29:47.1, which ranks one spot behind Kigen in course history at No. 9. Fellow Crimson Tide junior Vincent Kiprop finished two slots back, coming in fourth in 30:04.9. All three young men qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships scheduled for November 18th in Louisville, Kentucky.
Kigen commented, "I never expected I would have this much success right away coming in from junior college. It's a great honor to be a regional champion. I want to thank Coach (Dan Waters) for the work he's done to prepare us for this. I've improved a lot since I arrived here. Running with guys like Alfred (Chelanga) and Vincent (Kiprop) pushes you to be better. I'm excited for nationals."
Kigen joins David Kimani (2000-01-02) and Antibahs Kosgei (2015) as the third UA runner to win a South Regional title.
Coach waters said, "Qualifying three individuals and seeing Gilbert win the regional championship is exciting. As a team, this was by far our best effort this year. The entire group ran with a lot of heart, they were primed and ready to go and battled to the end. The three guys up front went out with the plan to break the field open and they did exactly that."
Alabama's other runners also worked hard. Senior Garrett Bull (32:11.6) finished 44th while sophomore J.P. Brinyark (32:26) finished 54th to complete the scoring.
It was Middle Tennessee (71 points) taking the men's team championship with Ole Miss (76) finishing second to clinch team berths in the NCAA Championships. Alabama (95) captured third place, followed by Florida State (128) and Tennessee (165).
The Alabama women's team came in ninth-place in the 6,000-meter women's competition. Junior Nicole Gardner was the lead runner for the Tide, finishing 38th in 21:04.5 Sophomores Elisabeth Danis (21:05.0) and Rebecca Buteau (21:06.4) were running right behind Gardner, with Danis finishing 39th and Gardner 40th.
Rounding out the scoring for the Bama women were sophomore McKenzie Yanek finishing in 53rd place in 21:18.9 and senior Caroline Barlow coming in 88th in 21:47.5.
Waters further commented, "Elisabeth Danis really ran a smart race today and moved up as she went through. Rebecca Buteau also did a nice job today too. She was poised and ready to run a great race. The story on the women's side is that they are very young and there is a lot of potential there. I think overall, it was a great season. They gave great effort and ran with a lot of heart."
Ole Miss (59 points) captured the victory for the women's team title and Georgia (73) finished second to secure spots in the NCAA Championships. Samford (94) finished third, followed by Florida State (129) and Georgia Tech (186) to round out the top five.
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Alabama Soccer Drops Heart-Breaker To Clemson
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| Casey Wertz scored UA soccer's lone goal Photo Credit: UA Athletics |
University of Alabama soccer head Coach Wes Hart said, "I'm so incredibly proud of this team. We played hard tonight. We played well enough to win, but it just didn't happen. What a great year though! We've certainly laid the foundation for future success for Alabama Soccer."
Casey Wertz scored the Tide's lone goal. Chatham DePropso led the Tide in shots with two on goal. Abbie Boswell took a shot for UA, Emma Welch stepped up with a save for Bama in the contest, while Kat Stratton wrapped up the final game of her Crimson Tide career with four saves in 90 minutes.
