Tide Defeats Montevallo 81-72 in Hoops Exhibition
11/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
TUSCALOOSA- The Alabama Crimson Tide basketball team defeated the Montevallo Falcons 81-72 at Coleman Coliseum Saturday evening in an exhibition game. The Falcons, playing the Tide for the first time, were able to stay within striking distance for most of the game but eventually gave way to
“Let me just open up and say that although Montevallo is a Division II basketball team, they are a very good basketball team. They are well-coached; extremely well-coached. And they’ve got two Division II All-Americans on their team. So when we scheduled Montevallo, we knew that we’d have our hands full,” said Alabama coach Mark Gottfried who played the game without his All-American, point guard Ronald Steele who sat out the game with tendonitis in his right knee. “Playing without Ron, in a way, was good for our team. It’s what we needed. So we learned we have a lot of areas where we’ve got to get better. I think was good for some of these young guys. People forget how young of a basketball team we are. It’s good for some of these young guys to get in those situations early, with the time and the score and how important a possession is at a certain point in the game. I feel like overall, there were some good things in the game tonight.”
Montevallo was able to keep the game fairly close during the first half, catching up and tying
The Tide maintained a double digit lead over the Falcons until Montevallo guard Greg Brown capitalized off an Alabama turnover, making the score 36-27. The Tide went into halftime with a 38-29 lead over the Falcons.
In the second half, Montevallo was able to tie the game at the 17:12 mark after Brown hit a three point field goal, making the score 41-41. After reaching that point, the Falcons were unable to overtake the Tide for the remainder of the game.
Montevallo was led in scoring by Greg Brown, who contributed 24 points hitting 3-out of -9 three point field goals.
“Those big guys are tough down there,” Brown said. “It’s pretty tough to shoot over a 6’10 athletic guy, but I think it was a good game for us and I think that we definitely improved.”
All-American Marcus Kennedy was the Falcons second leading scorer, contributing 14 points and seven rebounds.
The Crimson Tide will officially open the season on Friday, November 10 against
