Tide Defeats Troy in Season Opener
11/9/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By: Tyler Roberts
UA Media Relations
TUSCALOOSA- The University of Alabama basketball team earned a tough victory in its season opener, defeating Troy 84-72, at Coleman Coliseum Friday night. The win gave Crimson Tide head coach Mark Gottfried his 250th career head coaching win in his 10th season at Alabama combined with three seasons as head coach at Murray State.
Against Troy the front line led the way for the Tide as junior Richard Hendrix and sophomore Demetrius Jemison each notched double-doubles. Hendrix racked up 22 points and 23 rebounds finishing one point shy in the second half of putting up a double-double in each half. Jemison added 15 points and grabbed 10 boards.
“I have got to give a lot of credit to my teammates,” Hendrix said. “I’ll be honest. All of my shots were point blank tonight. My ultimate goal is to just do whatever it takes to get a win. I think my teammates know, and I know, that I’m a focal point in the offense and I’m going to do whatever it takes to get it done.”
The game stayed close throughout until the Tide finished the game on a 16-5 run over the final 12 minutes. Alabama used a strong defensive effort, holding Troy without a field goal for more than 10 minutes, to fuel the run.
Sophomore guard Justin Tubbs gave the Tide a spark off the bench scoring 13 points including three 3-pointers and a monster reverse dunk. Mykal Riley also scored in double figures putting up 11 points despite battling foul trouble in the second half.
As a team, the Tide shot 51 percent from the field and dominated on the boards, outrebounding Troy 61-35. Head coach Mark Gottfried liked his team’s effort.
“We are playing hard, harder now,” Gottfried said. “We don’t always play smart and well, but we play hard. The effort is there and that is one thing we have been working on. We just need to keep that going every night.”
One down note for the Tide was turnovers. Troy used full-court pressure for much of the game forcing the Tide into 25 give-aways.
“We turned the ball over way too many times,” Gottfried said. “We didn’t have a lot of poise against the full-court pressure. We need to work on that and make the easy pass.”
This marked Alabama’s second victory of the week over an in-state opponent as the Tide knocked off North Alabama 99-71 on Monday night.
O’Darien Bassett led Troy in scoring with 17 points. Former Alabama player Justin Jonus contributed 15 for the visitors.
The Crimson Tide will get its first road test of the young season on Tuesday November 13, as they travel to Macon, Ga. to face Mercer at 6:30 p.m. CT. There will be no TV for that game, however fans can follow the action by listening to the Crimson Tide Sports network. (A list of affiliates is located on this website). The next home game for Alabama will be November 19, at Coleman Coliseum when NCAA tournament team Belmont comes to town for a 6:00 p.m. CT game.
