Alabama
Rhode Island
Five Crimson Tide Players Score in Double Figures to Lead Alabama Men’s Basketball Past Rhode Island, 68-64
12/6/2017 10:47:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Sophomore Dazon Ingram and junior Donta Hall both recorded a double-double to propel the Tide past the Rams
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Junior Donta Hall and sophomore Dazon Ingram both registered double-doubles to lead the Alabama men's basketball team past Rhode Island, 68-64, Wednesday night at Coleman Coliseum.
Hall and Ingram became the first Crimson Tide pair to record a double-double in the same game since JaMychal Green and Tony Mitchell achieved the feat against Kentucky on Dec. 12, 2010.
Hall surpassed his career-high in rebounds as he corralled 14 rebounds against the Rams and also acquired his second career double-double, scoring 13 points. Ingram logged his third career double-double with a career-best14 rebounds to go with 10 points.
Three other Crimson Tide players reach double digits as sophomore Daniel Giddens set a career-high scoring 12 points, while adding six boards. Freshmen Collin Sexton, who was limited to only 17 minutes of action after suffering an eye injury, and John Petty rounded out the double-digit scorers for Alabama with 11 and 12 points, respectively.
Alabama never trailed in the contest as the Tide improved to 7-2 on the young season, while Rhode Island, which entered the contest just on the outside of the top-25 polls, falls to 5-3.
"First off, I want to say thank you to our fans, but especially out students," Alabama head coach Avery Johnson said. "Our student section was rocking tonight. Their energy had an effect on the entire crowd tonight, so thank you. We let you down the last game, all of our fans. I just want to say a special thank you. I have been going to fraternity houses to give speeches. I've been all over campus and I challenged our students that if you want a special basketball team, we need your support. Thank you to the students.
"I'm awfully proud of our team for a lot of different reasons. I'm not going to focus on the turnovers, I'm sure we can improve on those areas. There are a lot of correctable areas in taking care of the ball and ball security. We outrebound the opponent by close to 20 rebounds. We had five guys in double figures, two guys get double-doubles, a lot of balanced scoring and we made our free throws down the stretch. Obviously Collin [Sexton] with his eye injury came back in and helped us. Daniel Giddens was special tonight in a lot of ways with his physicality and post presence. I am proud of our team's effort. We didn't have this kind of effort in our last home game."
Alabama started the game off hot, jumping out to a 7-2 lead and stretched its advantage by double digits, 20-10, after a three-pointer by freshman John Petty at the 8:50 mark. The Rams responded with an 8-1 offensive burst to cut the deficit to three with 6:40 left in the half and eventually tied the game at 23-23. However, Alabama reeled off six straight to lead 29-23 with 3:11 to play and ended the half up by seven, 32-25, to head into the break.
UA shot 52.4 percent from the field compared to URI's 25.6 percent, but the Rams were able to capitalize off of Alabama mistakes to keep the game close, scoring nine points off of 14 Tide turnovers.
After trading baskets to open the second half, the Crimson Tide went on a quick 6-0 spurt to open up a 41-32 lead with 14:33 left in the game. UA's lead continued to build, as the Tide knocked down 6-of-7 for a 12-2 run over a 3:35 span for its largest lead of the night, 47-34, with 11:55 remaining.
The Rams' defense turned it up a notch, helping them to outscore the Tide 22-9 over the next 8:28 to tie the game up at 56-56 with 3:09 left on the clock. Sexton came off the bench and drilled a straight-away three-pointer to give the lead back to Alabama. The Tide, which finished the game 24-of-39 (.615) from the charity stripe, knocked down 7-of-8 free throws over the final 36 seconds to put the game out of reach.
Alabama will travel to Arizona this Saturday to face the Wildcats for the Tide's first true road game of the year. Tipoff is scheduled for 9 p.m. CT and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
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