Nate Oats praises Alabama defense in first half vs. Charleston in NCAA Tournament

After a slow start, Alabama finished the first half in a dead sprint. With 4:10 left in the first half, Alabama only led Charleston by three points. Following a 16-2 run, the team boasted a convincing 51-34 lead at halftime.

Alabama head coach Nate Oats praised his team’s defense in the first 20 minutes of the NCAA Tournament Round of 64 showdown.

“We didn’t let our offensive struggles impact our defense,” Oats said. “We were getting stops. We just couldn’t get the rebounds to close it. We did a better job rebounding. I thought [Mohamed Wague] and [Mouhamed Dioubate], both of them came in and kind of changed the impact of the game. They made some tough plays and got us out in transition. We were able to attack the rim in transition.”

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Alabama squeezed six turnovers out of Charleston in the first half, translating the opposition’s mistakes into 13 points. Wague and Dioubate combined for five rebounds in the half while providing much-needed length on interior defense.

Alabama loses Latrell Wrightsell Jr. in the first half

Even more impressive, Alabama was without one of its key players for a substantial chunk of the first half. With a little over six minutes remaining in the half, Alabama guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. left the game with a bloody nose. Wrightsell went to the locker room with a trainer immediately after exiting the game.

Wrightsell suffered the injury after running into the back of a Charleston player. The 6-foot-3 senior was off to a hot start before being forced off the court, tallying 11 points in the half while shooting 4-5 from the field and 3-4 from beyond the arc.

This isn’t the first time this season Wrightsell has dealt with injuries. In late February, Wrightsell suffered a head injury in practice that kept him on the sidelines during Alabama’s contests against Florida, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Tennessee.

Wrightsell returned to full action in Alabama’s 92-88 overtime win over Arkansas. He was fantastic in the victory, notching 20 points while shooting 66% from the field and 50% from downtown. After the game, Oats raved about Wrightsell’s importance to the team.

“We needed him in a bad way,” Oats told the press. “I feel like if we’d have had him in all those games he was out, we definitely wouldn’t have lost some of the ones we did. We’d have a league championship if he hadn’t gone down.”