Alabama Men's Basketball
Bama Remains Undefeated Rolling Over BYU
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| Photo Credit: UA Athletics |
BROOKLYN, New York – The undefeated and 25th-ranked University of Alabama men's basketball team stayed among the ranks of the undefeated on Friday afternoon by rolling over BYU 71-59 in its first game of the Barclays Classic. The Crimson Tide moves to 5-0 on the season after defeating the Cougars yesterday on the campus of LIU Brooklyn in Brooklyn, New York. This is the best start to a season since Bama opened at 6-0 back in the 2012-13 campaign.
UA will be playing for the Barclays Classic's championship in the Barclays Center against 14th-ranked Minnesota on Saturday tonight.
Four players for the Tide reached double figures in the contest to beat the Cougars. Freshman John Petty led the Bama scoring, picking up a team-high of 16 points while converting on four-of-seven from three-point range. Junior Donta Hall added another 14 points while leading the team with nine rebounds.
Tide sophomore Dazon Ingram again stepped up big for Bama contributing 13 points, three rebounds and three assists while freshman Collin Sexton added 10 points, seven rebounds and three assists to the mix.
UA shot 49.1 percent from the field (27-of-55), including a whopping 60.0 percent in the first half alone. On the defensive end, Alabama knocked away six shots and stole six balls, and forced 11 turnovers.
Alabama men's basketball head coach Avery Johnson said, "We're a team that's capable of having four, five, six guys in double figures. Our teams has balance and quality depth. There may be some nights a guy may have to carry us the same way [Yoeli] Childs tried to carry [BYU] today, but we take pride in having guys who can pass, dribble and shoot; multiple guys who can play good defense, and we don't really have a lot of weak links in the chain on either end of the floor. So we're hoping to get more balance offensively. We needed it today."
The Alabama Crimson Tide and the Minnesota Golden Gophers will play for the Barclays Classic Championship this afternoon in a top-25 contest slated for a 4 p.m. CT tipoff at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn New York.
| Game Stats | UA | BYU |
|---|---|---|
| FG% | .491 | .373 |
| 3FG% | .385 | .235 |
| FT% | .750 | .524 |
| RB | 34 | 34 |
| TO | 9 | 11 |
| STL | 6 | 3 |
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| Photo Credit: UA Athletics |
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Alabama Women's Basketball
Crimson Tide Drops 2nd Consecutive Contest
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| Photo Credit: UA Athletics |
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida – How quickly an undefeated season can turn to consecutive losses. The season is young, and the Crimson Tide will bounce back, but the University of Alabama women's basketball will have to pull it together after falling in both games of the Puerto Rico Classico tournament. The latest loss was to Elon by five, 60-55. One really bright spot in the game, however, was senior Meoshonti Knight surpassing 1,000 points in her career during the tournament being held at Cardinal Gibbons High School yesterday.
Tide head coach Kristy Curry, commenting on Knight's accomplishment, commented, "She's (Meoshonti Knight) started for four years and has worked so hard, she's so coachable and I just want to give a congratulations to her on a tough day where our team didn't win. It is a bright spot to get over 1,000 points, I'm really proud of her. She nearly had a double-double with eight rebounds, and down the stretch she really played hard for us."
Though Bama (4-2) suffered the loss to undefeated Elon (5-0), UA held the Phoenix to only 38 percent shooting, while forcing 22 turnovers.
Knight finished the game with 14 points, 11 coming in the fourth quarter, to go along with eight rebounds. Tide senior Hannah Cook banged in 13 points in the contest with senior Ashley Williams rounding out the double-digit scorers for Bama contributing 10 points and six rebounds herself.
The Crimson Tide will be back in action for another road game, with this one in Fort Worth, Texas on December 1st at Noon CT against TCU.
| Game Stats | ELON | UA |
|---|---|---|
| FG% | .377 | .305 |
| 3FG% | .000 | .231 |
| FT% | .606 | .696 |
| RB | 40 | 37 |
| TO | 22 | 22 |
| STL | 10 | 11 |
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Alabama Volleyball To Conclude Regular Season Today,
Celebrates Senior Day Against Texas A&M
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| Photo Credit: UA Athletics |
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama - University of Alabama women's volleyball (18-13, 6-11 SEC) will conclude the 2017 season today hosting Texas A&M (9-15, 6-11 SEC) at Noon CT in Foster Auditorium.
The last match in which the Crimson Tide participated, UA fell to Missouri in three sets this past Wednesday on the road. According to the final RPI rankings, Bama is No. 56 while A&M comes in at No. 59.
Alabama ranks in the top five in the SEC overall, fourth in digs and fifth in aces. Individually, Meghan Neelon ranks fifth in assists. Of note is the fact that Quincy Gary leads the team this season in digs with 523, making her sixth in the Southeastern Conference.
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Revisiting The 2016 Iron Bowl
Crimson Tide Rolls Over Auburn Tigers
Completes 12-0 Regular Season
Completes 12-0 Regular Season
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| 2016 Iron Bowl Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
The University of Alabama Crimson Tide overcame first half adversity, most of which by its own hands, to dash the hopes of the Auburn Tigers in the 81st Annual Iron Bowl held this year in Bryant-Denny Stadium in front of 101, 821 fans in beautiful Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The Tigers drew first blood, and it still took awhile before the Tide began to roll, but eventually came rolling in as an unstoppable tsunami to drown the kitty cats from the Plains 30-12.
Alabama true freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts overcame two early-game interceptions to wow the crowd with 285 yards in a aerial attack that the Tigers really had no answer for. Then in the second half the ground game began chewing up yards that sent Auburn back on its heels. Gone is the Tiger's eight-game streak without allowing a rushing touchdown. Alabama ended that little pipe dream.
Alabama improves to 12-0 overall, 8-0 in the Southeastern Conference while the Auburn Tigers fell to 8-4 overall, 5-3 in the SEC. The top-ranked Tide only led by four points at halftime, 13-9, though holding a huge lop-sided statistical lead, over the 13th-ranked Tigers. Bama had 263 yards of total offense in the first half, to just 31 for Auburn. The Crimson Tide compiled 194 passing yards, 69 rushing yards as well as one touchdown and two field goals for that 13-9 lead. Auburn had four passing yards with 27 rushing yards. And first half first downs? Alabama had a huge 14 to one edge.
Plus, the Tide defense added another four quarters without allowing a touchdown, bring the total to just over 14.
Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban said, "We had some really, really challenging field position situations in this game, and our players responded really well to it."
Fumbles and interceptions in the game kept the boys from Bama in awkward positions offensively. Most teams would have struggled defensively as well considering the number of times the Tide gifted the Tigers with good field position, but the Alabama defense held, keeping the visitors out of its end zone for touchdowns no matter how far they ventured into the red zone. But, Hurts overcame those problems also, and completed a total of 27-of-36 passes and threw for two touchdowns giving Bama its third consecutive Iron Bowl victory for the first time since 1990-92.
Plus, the Tide defense added another four quarters without allowing a touchdown, bring the total to just over 14.
Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban said, "We had some really, really challenging field position situations in this game, and our players responded really well to it."
Fumbles and interceptions in the game kept the boys from Bama in awkward positions offensively. Most teams would have struggled defensively as well considering the number of times the Tide gifted the Tigers with good field position, but the Alabama defense held, keeping the visitors out of its end zone for touchdowns no matter how far they ventured into the red zone. But, Hurts overcame those problems also, and completed a total of 27-of-36 passes and threw for two touchdowns giving Bama its third consecutive Iron Bowl victory for the first time since 1990-92.
Saban commented, "At halftime, I guess everybody thought I was going to throw a fit, but I told them, `Look guys, all we've got to do is go out there and play with some poise and confidence."
Additionally, Hurts rushed for 37 yards and a touchdown, plus he directed two straight touchdown drives in the third quarter. He ran for a 4-yard score on a drive heavily-infused by four Bo Scarbrough runs. Then on a fourth-and-4 play, he hit receiver ArDarius Stewart, who crossed the goal line on a 38-yard catch and dash giving the Tide a 27-9 lead. Scarbrough rushed for 90 yards while Stewart picked up 127 yards on 10 reception.
Concerning his touchdown scoring play, ArDarius Stewart said, "It was like two reads in one. If the guy is playing press, I had to slant it out; if the guy is playing soft, it was like a regular hitch. He came up, and I saw he was playing outside, so I had to go out a little bit, cut in and get open. Jalen (Hurts) threw a perfect ball, and I just turned it up the sideline, tried to tight rope it, and it worked out."
Alabama picked up a total of 501 yards in Saturday's contest, while limiting Auburn to 182. While the Tide broke the Tiger's streak of keeping teams out of its end zone via the rush, Auburn wasn't as fortunate to break the Tide's streak of holding teams out of the end zone. The Tigers weren't even able to muster a first down until nearly 25 minutes into the game and, with few exceptions, had no passing game.
Saban said, "I really can't say enough about the great feeling that I have in terms of the way our guys competed in the game today. This is a great win, and I want our players to enjoy it, but we also have a big challenge coming up next week. This is sort of like being in the playoffs, so we've got to play the game next week and we'll get ready for that starting on Monday and go from there."
Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn said, "Obviously, it was a tough loss for our team. I am proud of our guys, the way they competed. Our defense played extremely well until they got worn down. It really stands out to me that the time of possession is doubled. They just got worn down. Offensively, just didn't get first downs. Really just didn't get it done. You know, (we were) 2-of-12 on third downs, I really think that really caused the problem. Twenty plays in the first half. And really, if you look at it, 20 plays in the first half; even with 20 plays we had a chance. I mean we were right there in the game, we went three-and-out, I think they scored, and then it was kind of an uphill battle from there on. But third downs, we didn't hit explosive plays, defense was on the field too long. That was really the story of the day. Obviously, we've got players in there that are hurting, coaches are hurting. This is a tough one. We didn't play well. Give them credit. They're a good team. We really expected to play better, and we didn't."
First Quarter
The Crimson Tide outgained the Tigers by a whopping 160 yards to just 1 yard, yet led by only the slimmest of margins, 10-3. Bama broke the 3-3 deadlock on a 17-yard catch-and-run from Jalen Hurts to ArDarius Stewart with 2:49 remaining. The play capped a three-play 55-yard drive giving the Tide the lead.
Alabama had 8 first downs in the quarter to zero for Auburn. The Tide had a hard time holding onto the ball, fumbling three times but were at least to keep possession. Alabama was 1-for-3 in third down conversions while Auburn went 0-for-3.
Second Quarter
The Crimson Tide added another 103 yards of total offense to the talley in the second quarter, bringing its total offensive output to 263 yards as opposed to just 31 yards for the Tigers. By the half Alabama had 194 passing yards and 69 rushing yards as compared to just four passing yards and 27 rushing yards for Auburn. The Tide now led in first downs 14-1, as well as in total number of plays 44-20. Bama was 3-3 in the red zone, while Aubie never made it that far despite having good field position through much of the half. Alabama had zero points off turnovers in the half, while six of Auburn's nine points were directly related to Tide turnovers.
Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts now took sole possession of second place on the UA single-season TD responsibility list with 32. Blake Sims (2014) is first at 35. Additionally, Hurts moved to second on the Alabama single-season total offense list with 3,202 yards. Blake Sims (2014) is first with 3,837 yards.
With those lop-sided statistics one would have thought the Tide to lead by more than the 13-9 score.
Third Quarter
It was the third quarter where the Crimson Tide began to finally wrest control of the game from the Tigers. Alabama scored two touchdowns to go up 27-9 on Auburn, before the Tigers managed yet another field goal late to bring the score a bit closer at 27-12.
Fourth Quarter
Alabama owned the fourth quarter. Auburn was through scoring and the Tide added another three points to the final tally, but pretty much moved the ball at will in the final stanza. Bama freshman running back Joshua Jacobs took his opportunity to shine on a couple of big pickups, one being a 26-yard run and the other a 30-yard catch-and-run.
The Tide ate up nine minutes of clock-time keeping the ball away from the Tigers to secure the win. Near the end of the game you could see Nick Saban tell offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin that was enough and then took off his headset.
The No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide, the undisputed champions of the SEC West, now faces the No. 15 Florida Gators in the SEC championship game in Atlanta, Georgia for the second consecutive year this next Saturday, December 3rd. The game will be televised by CBS beginning at 3 p.m. CT at the Georgia Dome.
With those lop-sided statistics one would have thought the Tide to lead by more than the 13-9 score.
Third Quarter
It was the third quarter where the Crimson Tide began to finally wrest control of the game from the Tigers. Alabama scored two touchdowns to go up 27-9 on Auburn, before the Tigers managed yet another field goal late to bring the score a bit closer at 27-12.
Fourth Quarter
Alabama owned the fourth quarter. Auburn was through scoring and the Tide added another three points to the final tally, but pretty much moved the ball at will in the final stanza. Bama freshman running back Joshua Jacobs took his opportunity to shine on a couple of big pickups, one being a 26-yard run and the other a 30-yard catch-and-run.
The Tide ate up nine minutes of clock-time keeping the ball away from the Tigers to secure the win. Near the end of the game you could see Nick Saban tell offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin that was enough and then took off his headset.
The No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide, the undisputed champions of the SEC West, now faces the No. 15 Florida Gators in the SEC championship game in Atlanta, Georgia for the second consecutive year this next Saturday, December 3rd. The game will be televised by CBS beginning at 3 p.m. CT at the Georgia Dome.
| Game Stats | AU | UA |
|---|---|---|
| Total Yards | 182 | 501 |
| Pass Yards | 116 | 298 |
| Rushing Yards | 66 | 203 |
| Penalty Yards | 4-19 | 4-28 |
| 1st Downs | 7 | 26 |
| 3rd Downs | 2-12 | 8-16 |
| 4th Downs | 0-1 | 2-2 |
| TOP | 19:31 | 40:29 |
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| 2016 Iron Bowl Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
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| 2016 Iron Bowl Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
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| 2016 Iron Bowl Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
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