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Alabama rolled into Knoxville to face Tennessee with their obnoxious checkerboard coverall wearing fanbase and emerged victorious, winning 71-69.
This game started out uglier than granny’s snuff stained muumuu. Both teams looked disjointed on offense and neither could make many shots. Tennessee was getting offensive rebounds on nearly every possession, but they were shooting so poorly that it barely mattered. After a full seven minutes of action, Tennessee had controlled the pace and turned the Tide over sufficiently to lead 10-9. Per usual in that building, the Vols were allowed to commit assault on every Tide possession with impunity.
Tennessee didn’t need to shoot it well in order to lead 40-28 headed into the locker room, because they took a whopping 16 more shots than the Tide. The Vols won the rebounding battle 28-15, and in fact had one more offensive board with 16 than Alabama’s total rebounds. Alabama also turned it over eight times to only three for Tennessee. Latrell Wrightell Jr. was hot from deep and that was the only thing keeping the score respectable. He had 11 to lead Alabama and made 3-4 outside the arc. Labaron Philon added eight in 11 minutes off the bench.
Tennessee guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie was responsible for the bulk of Tennessee’s offense. He led with 15 points on 50% three point shooting, added 4 assists and a ridiculous seven steals. Tennessee bigs Felix Okpara and Jaylen Carey grabbed six boards each to pace both teams, half of those on the offensive end. Okpara also added two blocks and was a general menace. Tennessee star freshman and future lottery pick Nate Ament went down with a leg injury late in the half.
Alabama started strong to open the second half. Aden Holloway, who had been held scoreless in the first half, hit two consecutive threes to draw Alabama within six. A four-point play from Wrightsell briefly got it down to four, but Tennessee bounced back quickly with dominant play on the block and led by eight at the first media timeout of the half. Ament had tried to give it a go and lasted a couple of possessions, scoring one midrange bucket, but he left wincing in pain and didn’t return.
Alabama got a stop out of the timeout despite a pair of Tennessee offensive rebounds, but Taylor Bol Bowen laid a brick from three and Okpara scored for a ten point advantage. Aiden Sherrell was able to draw a foul from Okpara on the other end and made a pair, but Nate Oats promptly got one of his signature technical fouls. Gillespie made one of two from the technical, then Tennessee proceeded to get three offensive rebounds on the next possession. In short order, the lead ballooned to 13 and the “soft” allegations creeped back in.
Alabama did manage to get it down to 11 headed into the second media timeout. Wrightsell was fouled from outside the arc to initiate the break, and made two of three coming out of it. Tennessee continued to dominate down low, but another Wrightsell three followed by a floater from Holloway pulled Alabama within six at the eight minute timeout.
Gillespie was promptly fouled by Allen on the baseline and made both free throws for a 61-53 lead. Philon then took him to the hole on the other end. Tennessee answered with yet another second chance bucket, but a three-point play from Philon got it down to five with five minutes to play. A steal and transition three from Wrightsell got it down to two before Okpara answered with a drive to stop the spurt. A Gillespie runout off of a Philon turnover left the score at 67-61 headed into the final TV timeout.
Play resumed with 3:22 left, and Philon promptly scored six consecutive points on drives to the basket to tie things up. Tennessee big J.P. Estrella scored on the block to end the run with two minutes left and the Vols up 69-67. Play was briefly stopped because Gillespie was bleeding profusely from his mouth after a collision. Philon then missed an open three, but Sherrell grabbed an offensive board. He kicked it out to Wrightsell who also missed, but Sherrell battled again and the ball went out of bounds off Tennessee.
Sherrell’s hard work paid off, as Holloway made a short baseline fadeaway to tie things up at 69 with 1:01 left. Tennessee coach Rick Barnes called timeout and Gillespie had a good look from three coming out of it, but he missed and the ball tumbled out of bounds. Okpara fell hard on his back after trying to get the rebound and went to the bench with 45 seconds left.
A beautiful fadeaway in the paint from Philon gave Alabama its first lead in quite a while at 71-69, Philon’s 15th point of the half. Barnes called another timeout with 19 seconds to play, and Oats subsequently decided to give a foul to kill a few seconds. Gillespie then took it to the hole and was denied, and the ball rolled around on the floor as time expired.
Wrightsell finished with 25 and Philon 23. The rebounds were a much more respectable 19-15 in favor of the Vols in the second half, and most importantly the Tide cut the turnovers down to two after the break.
Alabama finally got the Tennessee monkey off its back, and will now almost assuredly get a double bye in the SEC tournament.
Roll Tide.