Alabama
Missouri
Men's Basketball Takes Down Missouri, 62-49
2/4/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The Alabama men's basketball team engaged in another well-fought SEC matchup, but outlasted the Missouri Tigers to grab a 62-49 victory on Wednesday night inside Coleman Coliseum. With the victory, the Crimson Tide improves to 14-8 on the season, including a 4-5 record in SEC play.
With top-scorer Levi Randolph at the helm, Alabama outscored Missouri 36-25 over the final 20 minutes to cap the victory. Randolph's game-best 20 points on the night, his third such effort of the season, moved him into 39th position on the program's all-time scoring list (1,139).
"I thought our guys were really good tonight defensively," Alabama head coach Anthony Grant said. "I thought we set the tone in both halves and kept getting better. It was a great team effort. I thought that we got a lot of great effort out of a lot of guys. Obviously, Levi (Randolph) led us tonight. He was extremely aggressive, and I thought in the second half he really took the game over. We got great play out of a lot of guys."
Alabama got off to a fast start, hitting five of its first nine shots (56%), including 3-of-6 from beyond the arc. Junior guard Rodney Cooper led the early attack, dropping back-to-back three-pointers on the way to erasing Missouri's only first half lead before the first media timeout.
Coming out of the first break in the action, Alabama reeled off an 11-2 run and held Mizzou (7-15, 1-8) scoreless for just under six minutes to push its lead to 16-11. Missouri would bounce back, scoring 13 to the Tide's 10 over the final six minutes to enter halftime trailing by just two points, 26-24.
Alabama continued to use pressure defense throughout the second half to steadily increase its lead. With the Tide leading by four points, 38-34, Randolph scored 12 of Alabama's next 14 points over a span of 8:28 to push the Tide's lead to 48-38 with eight minutes remaining. From that point, the Tide connected on a majority of its free throws and cruised to the 13-point win.
Randolph went on to score 15 of his 20 points after the intermission, while junior guard Retin Obasohan scored 10 of his 12 points came over the final 20 minutes. Sophomore forward Shannon Hale also reached double figures with 10 points on the night.
"I thought Retin did a great job tonight running the team tonight," Grant said. "He made some tremendous hustle plays, diving on the floor for loose balls, and he had a couple of opportunities to use defense to make offense for us and that was great. I thought Mike Kessens was outstanding tonight. You look at the stat sheet, six (points) and six (rebounds) for him with two assists, one turnover and one steal. I thought his impact on the game was all over for us, from the beginning with his energy and communication. Shannon Hale also gave us great minutes. We got great effort out of a lot of guys tonight."
Following tonight's game, Alabama will begin a stretch where it will play three of four games away from home when the Tide travels to take on LSU in Baton Rouge, La., on Saturday at 5 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
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