Alabama
14-8, 5-4
Georgia
10-12, 1-8
Alabama’s Big Second Half Helps Lead Team to an 89-74 Victory Over Georgia
2/6/2019 11:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Junior Tevin Mack and freshman Kira Lewis Jr. combined for 49 of the team’s 89 total points in home victory
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Junior Tevin Mack and freshman Kira Lewis Jr. combined to score 49 points to lead the Alabama men's basketball team to an 89-74 victory over Georgia on Wednesday night at Coleman Coliseum. With the win, the Crimson Tide improved to 14-8 overall, including a 9-2 mark in home games, and 5-4 in Southeastern Conference play.
Mack finished the night by shooting 10-of-16 from the floor and 5-of-6 from beyond the arc on his way to a season-high 25 points, the second-most scored by an Alabama player this season (John Petty had 30 at Tennessee on Jan. 19), while adding six rebounds. Meanwhile, Lewis was equally as good, collecting 24 points while knocking down 10-of-17 shots from the field to go along with a game-high seven assists in the win. In addition to the scoring output, the duo combined to shoot 20-of-33 (60.6 percent) from the floor and 6-of-11 (54.5 percent) from beyond the arc.
"First of all, I want to just say what a good job Coach (Tom) Crean (Georgia) is doing with his team," said head coach Avery Johnson. "Obviously, it's a transition year for them and I've been there. I am awfully proud of this Alabama Crimson Tide team. I talked to them about the way you handle disappointment is you don't allow it to hijack your dreams. We obviously didn't have a great performance in our last game but I'm awfully glad about the way we handled it tonight. We played hard and we were really good on defense in the second half, which has been our achilles heel. We got some outstanding performances from some guys like Kira and Tevin. Daniel Giddens gave us a big lift inside, so again I'm glad we came back and hustled and played extremely hard at home and had a great bounce back win from our last game."
Junior Dazon Ingram also had a solid game for the Crimson Tide, finishing with 11 points, three assists and three steals on the night, while sophomore John Petty Jr. added eight points and five rebounds off the bench.
Alabama shot an impressive 61.5-percent (16-of-26) from the field in the second half, marking the first time since March 15, 2018 that the Tide shot better than 60 percent in a half. In that contest, UA shot 60.9 percent in the second half in the NCAA Tournament first round win over Virginia Tech.
Georgia (10-12, 1-8) kept the game close in a first half that included four ties and three lead changes. The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 15-8 advantage, but Alabama battled back with a quick 10-0 run to put the Tide up by two with over 12 minutes in the half. The two teams would continue to exchange baskets with Alabama holding a 41-38 advantage at the half.
Alabama began the second half with a 12-2 run, including 10 points from Mack during the spurt, to give the Tide its first double-digit lead of the night. UA led by as many as 18 points, 80-62, with just over four minutes remaining on its way to the 15-point win.
The Tide scored 48 points in the paint and owned a 22-16 edge in points off turnovers. Georgia, the top rebounding team in the SEC, won the battle of the boards, 38-37, including a 15-7 edge on the offensive glass which resulted in a 21-8 advantage in second chance points for the Bulldogs.
Georgia was led by senior forward Derek Ogbeide's 17 points, while sophomore forward Nicolas Claxton ended the night with 12 points and nine rebounds.
Alabama begins its road stretch Saturday night when it travels to Nashville, Tenn. to play Vanderbilt. Tipoff is scheduled 7:30 p.m. CT and the game will be televised on the SEC Network.
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