Alabama basketball beats Vanderbilt for first SEC win

The Alabama men’s basketball team has moved to 9-5 on the season after beating Vanderbilt (5-9, 0-1 SEC) 78-75 on Saturday. There were some impressive moments for the Crimson Tide throughout this game, but they’re still lacking the consistency needed to play at a level Nate Oats is comfortable with. Here’s a quick run down of the game.

How It Happened

The game started off with a back-and-forth battle for the first 6.5 minutes before Alabama got on a 14-0 run to take a commanding 33-15 lead. And yet, Vanderbilt immediately responded with a 9-0 run of its own before finishing the first half with another nine-straight points to close the gap to 40-36.

The second half saw UA get off to a hot start by outscoring the Commodores 16-7 in the first eight minutes, but once again, they were unable to hang onto a 13-point lead. Fortunately, the Tide were able to hang on for a narrow 78-75 road victory despite Rylan Griffen missing two of his last three free throws to keep Vandy in it.

Alabama didn’t seem to play with much urgency down the stretch, which I’m curious to hear Nate Oats’ thoughts on in the postgame press conference. Whether it was rebounds, turnovers or missed free throws in some critical moments, things just were there for the Crimson Tide in crunch time.

Key Stats

Really, the turnovers for Alabama played a significant part in Saturday’s outcome. UA came into the game as a 14.5-point favorite, but turning the ball over 16 times isn’t going to get it done against good teams. That’s something that plagued them against Arizona, which resulted in Alabama’s worst loss this season (13 points). The 16 turnovers on Saturday helped Vandy outscore the Tide 60-45 after UA started with that 33-15 lead.

Players of the Game

Alabama’s leading scorer continued to be just that on Saturday, as veteran Mark Sears put up a game-high 21 points while hitting 3-of-5 attempts (60%) from beyond the arc. This was his first 20-point game since UA’s 92-86 loss to Purdue back on Dec. 9, but he’s consistently been in double digits the entire season. In fact, his season-low is still 11 points, which came against Eastern Kentucky a couple of weeks ago. Sears also added four rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Latrell Wrightsell Jr. continued to be hot from three-point land. After convering 8-of-13 combined attempts in Alabama’s last two games, the transfer from Cal State Fullerton hit 3-of-7 against Vanderbilt on Saturday. That means he’s hitting over 50% (11-of-20) over his last three games, and some of those makes have come at important moments in games. He’s been averaging 13 points per game during that span.

Aaron Estrada and Sam Walters are also worth mentioning. Estrada didn’t do much in the scoring department (5 points), but he led Alabama in rebounds (7) and assists (6) while also adding a block. Those were also game-highs. Walters continues to provide a spark off the bench, too. He scored eight points against the Commodores while hitting 2-of-4 three-point attempts, which means he’s now hit nine of his last 15 (60%) over the last four games. That’s a big reason why he’s averaging 11.3 points during that stretch.

His eight points on Saturday came in just 13 minutes of action.

What’s Next

Alabama has South Carolina up next. The Gamecocks were picked to finish last in the SEC going into the season, but they’re currently 13-1 (1-0 SEC) with their lone loss being to Clemson team that’s been racked in the top-25 this season. The Crimson Tide will welcome South Carolina to Coleman Coliseum with tipoff set for 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET).

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