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Alabama basketball continues to roll, beats top-ranked Houston on the road

47377776_10156854436900775_2208546246019252224_nby:Clint Lamb•12/10/22•

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Photo courtesy of Alabama Athletics

Alabama basketball is on roll right now. On Saturday, the Crimson Tide moved to 8-1 (0-0 SEC) on the year after beating top-ranked Houston 71-65 on the road. That’s now two wins over a No. 1 team in less than two weeks, as UA also beat North Carolina 103-101 in a four-overtime thriller on Nov. 27.

To be fair, the Tar Heels are no longer a top-25 team. They’ve lost four of their last five games. Michigan State, who the Tide beat 81-70 while the Spartans were ranked No. 12, isn’t either. They’re also 6-4 on the season. Still, both are good basketball teams, and Alabama continues to find a way to win these tough games.

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What makes Saturday’s game against Houston even more impressive is how the Crimson Tide managed to win. This team got down by as many as 15 points in a hostile environment. And yet, it never wavered and found a way to come back. That was with star freshman forward Brandon Miller going 0-for-8 from the field.

Fellow freshmen Jaden Bradley and Noah Clowney picked up the slack though.

They were Alabama’s two leading scorers with 16 and 12 points, respectively. Clowney also added 11 rebounds, two blocks and an assist while Bradley five rebounds and four assists. Transfer Mark Sears also stepped up big in this one, finishing with 11 points while going 2-for-4 from beyond the arc.

We also can’t ignore how well Nimari Burnett did on the defensive end of the court while guarding Marcus Sasser, who was held to only nine points of 2-of-11 field goals after averaging 16.9 points per game entering Saturday.

What’s even more exciting is that this squad is still developing. We’re not witnessing a finished product. With 12 first-half turnovers, that set the tone for the deficit, but only three in the second half helped them come back and get a huge win. That type of bounce-back is not something we saw from this team a year ago.

Things won’t let up from here though. Alabama will be back on the court this upcoming Tuesday, as a 7-2 Memphis squad travels to Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa. Then, a rematch against No. 18 Gonzaga aways only four days later. The good news is that game will also be at home.

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