Alabama
Arkansas
Tide Takes a Hard Fought Win Over Arkansas, 72-63
2/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Chris Woodfin
TUSCALOOSA, AL - Chuck Davis scored 16 second half points to lead the No. 16 ranked (AP) University of Alabama men's basketball team to a hard fought 72-63 victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks at Coleman Coliseum Wednesday night. The win improves the Crimson Tide to 20-4 for the season, 9-2 in Southeastern Conference play. Arkansas fell to 17-8, 5-7 in the SEC.
Alabama opened the game quickly, jumping out to a 15-5 lead under seven minutes into the contest. The Tide increased its lead to 12 points with 7:27 remaining in the half. However, Arkansas battled back from there, going on an 18-5 run to take a 34-33 lead to the half.
That's when Davis, who had suffered from the effects of the flu all week, took over for Alabama, scoring 11 of the Tide's first 22 points after halftime to give Alabama a lead it would not relinquish.
Alabama head coach Mark Gottfried was proud of Davis' effort.
"He played terrific," Gottfried said. "He played hard tonight. He played with a lot of passion. He's been really weak and hasn't practiced. He played a lot of minutes tonight, more than I wanted him to. But in the second half, we just kept going to him down there and he had a lot of success. I was really proud of him."
Davis finished with a game high 21 points.
The Tide only took 19 shots in the second half, but connected on 12 and finished the game shooting better than 53 percent from the floor in comparison to Arkansas who hit only 43 percent for the game.
In addition to Davis, Earnest Shelton and Kennedy Winston also led the way for Alabama. Shelton scored 19 points and Winston added 18.
Jonathon Modica paced three Razorbacks in double figures with 16 points. Darian Townes scored 14 points and grabbed a game best 12 rebounds. Ronnie Brewer added 11 for the Hogs.
Alabama returns to action Saturday as it wraps up a three game home stand against South Carolina. Tip-off is set for 2:00 p.m. The game will be televised by Jefferson Pilot and can be heard on the Crimson Tide Sports Network.
