The Week Ahead: South Alabama & Purdue
11/29/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2010
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Alabama begins the fourth week of the season and the December portion of its schedule this week against South Alabama and No. 22/18 Purdue.
The Crimson Tide opens up the week by facing in-state foe South Alabama on Wednesday in Coleman Coliseum at 7:30 p.m. in the third-ever meeting between the two programs.
However, Wednesday’s game will be the first at a home site as the previous two meetings have taken place on neutral courts. In the last meeting on Dec. 12, 1998, Alabama handled USA by a 59-45 margin behind Brian Williams’ game-high 20 points at the Arby’s Hardwood Classic in Birmingham, Ala. The Tide shot 47.7 percent in that win, including 12-of-24 in the second half to pull away.
The first-ever meeting between the two programs was not planned and did not go as well for the Tide. Coming off an SEC Tournament Championship with a No. 20 ranking, the Tide earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament and was paired against 11th-seeded South Alabama in the opening round.
The Tide led by 16 points at halftime in that game but a furious USA rally gave the Jaguars an 83-81 lead on a Gabriel Estaba three-point play with 1:37 left in the contest. An offensive rebound by Robert Horry kept the Tide’s next possession alive and allowed UA to reclaim the lead on an Alvin Lee three-pointer with 1:13 left to play. USA also had its next possession kept alive by an offensive rebound before calling three straight timeouts, the last with 10 seconds left, to set up its offense.
With two seconds on the clock, USA’s Jeff Hodge hit a desperation three-pointer off a broken play from 23 feet out on the right side of the basket to give the Jags the 86-84 win as the Tide missed its game-tying shot.
Alabama and Purdue meet for the seventh time on Saturday with the Boilermakers coming out ahead in four of the previous six contests including last season’s 73-65 decision in Tuscaloosa. Half of the meetings in the series have come in the postseason with two in the NIT and one NCAA contest.
In the Tide’s last trip to West Lafayette on March 23, 2001, it prevailed in a double-overtime, 85-77, thriller to advance to the NIT Final Four in New York City.
That contest saw Alabama rally from a seven-point deficit with four minutes to play and take two-point lead at 62-60 on a pair of Terrance Meade free throws with 25 seconds left. Purdue responded with a John Allison bucket with eight seconds to go to force the first overtime.
The Tide led by four with a minute to play in the first overtime but four free-throws from the Boilermakers tied the game and a critical steal by Gerald Wallace on Purdue’s final possession forced the second extra period.
Alabama made its first four shots of the second overtime including a three-point play from Erwin Dudley to force Purdue to foul in the final minute. UA converted on three of its free throws and the defense continued to get stops to allow the team to advance to Madison Square Garden with the eight-point win.
Dudley led all players in the game with 20 points and 16 rebounds in 43 minutes of action for UA.
