Alabama
15-6,7-1SEC
Georgia
14-7,4-4SEC
No. 24/22 Alabama Overcomes 16-Point Deficit to Pull Out an 85-76 Victory at Georgia
1/31/2024 8:28:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Crimson Tide scored 58 points in the second half, outscoring the Bulldogs by 23 points over the final 20 minutes
ATHENS, Ga. – The No. 24/22 Alabama men's basketball trailed by as many as 16 points in the first half, and by 11 points with 11 minutes left, before a 17-5 run helped UA to an 85-76 come-from-behind road victory at Georgia Wednesday night.
The Bulldogs led 41-27 at the half, however, the Crimson Tide (15-6, 7-1 SEC) shot 62.5 percent from the field and posted 58 points in the second half to earn the win and remain in first place in the SEC standings.
Mark Sears led four UA players in double digits with 23 points, with 19 coming in the second half, to go along with a team-leading five rebounds, five assists and four steals on his way to earning the Hard Hat Award. Grant Nelson scored 14 of his 20 in the second stanza while Rylan Griffen had 10 of his 12 points come after intermission. Aaron Estrada added 11 points and matched Sears with four steals.
The Bulldogs (14-6, 4-3) were led by RJ Melendez's 15 points, 10 rebounds and three steals in the losing effort.
Head Coach Nate Oats Postgame Comments
"I can't say enough about our guys in the second half. They showed some fight, and they showed what they are about. Georgia was obviously much more ready to go to start the game. Coach White's done a great job in his second year, turning it around and the fans were great. This place did not sound like this or look like this until this year so, it is a much-improved program. They probably should have beat Tennessee here and they did beat South Carolina. They are a good team that's going to win a lot of games. They came out of the gate ready to play and we did not and I thought we missed some shots and it affected how we played offense. We came out in the second half, and we fixed a lot of what was wrong in the first half and then it took a little while to pick up. I knew we could win this game by getting stops and rebounding the ball better. They didn't score a field goal from that timeout at 10:08 until four and a half minutes to go in the game and we came out of the timeout got stops, rebounded it and did enough on offense and played hard enough, creating 19 turnovers, which counteracted the fact that we did not rebound the ball very well. Sears only had about six points with six minutes to go in the game and somehow ended up with 23. He competed and he won our hard hat tonight because he played hard, and he did not want us to lose his game tonight. Grant Nelson showed he's got some mental toughness; you know he's struggled to shoot the ball. But he's been shooting 40% from three in practice, we trust him to make shots. He's done a good job not taking too many but taking appropriate ones and those two he made late in the game were huge. I mean, they sealed the game for us. He showed he's a winner, he showed the moment doesn't get too big for him. He didn't shy away from it. We have a lot of hard games to win. If you're going to try to win a conference championship these are the games you have to win on the road."
TEAM STATS
- Alabama trailed by as many as 16 points (37-21 at the 2:37 mark of the first half), by 14 points at halftime and 11 points with 11 minutes remaining (55-44, 11:17)
- The Tide finished the game shooting 53 percent (32-60) from the field, 35 percent (8-23) from beyond the arc and 68 percent (13-19) from the free throw line
- In comparison, the Bulldogs shot 44 percent (27-61) from the floor, 41 percent (7-17) from three-point range and 83 percent (15-18) from the charity stripe
- Alabama finished with just nine turnovers, six of which came in the opening half of play, compared to 19 turnovers from Georgia which resulted in a 19-9 edge for the Tide in points of miscues
- UA owned a 42-34 lead in points in the paint and a 12-5 edge in fast break points
- The Bulldogs outrebounded the Tide, 39-26, however, after Georgia began the game with a 30-9 edge on the boards, Alabama finished the contest outrebounding them, 17-8\
- Alabama only led for 4:22 while Georgia led for 33:50
FIRST HALF
- Georgia jumped out to a 9-2 lead by the first media timeout
- Alabama shot 1-9 along with five turnovers in its first 12 possessions of the game
- UA went on a six-minute scoring draught while Georgia went on a 13-0 run, giving UGA a 17-2 lead
- Georgia's largest lead of the half was 16 points (28-12) at the 6:49-mark
- Georgia outrebounded Alabama 26-8 in the first half, which led to 12 second chance points for UGA
- Alabama trailed 41-27 at halftime
SECOND HALF
- The Tide was hot throughout the final 20 minutes, shooting 62.5 percent (20-32) from the field, 50 percent (6-12) from beyond the arc and 80 percent 12-15 from the free throw line
- UA outscored UGA 58-35 as a result
- Alabama was able to cut Georgia's lead to single-digits (45-37) with just over 15 minutes left in the game
- The game turned in large part due to a 17-5 second half run that 3:54 and turned a 61-54 deficit into a 71-66 lead
UP NEXT
- Alabama returns to home to face Mississippi State on Saturday, Feb. 3, at Coleman Coliseum
- The game is slated for tipoff at 7:30 p.m. CT and will air live on the SEC Network
For all the latest information on the team, follow AlabamaMBB on X, Instagram and Facebook. General athletic news can be found @UA_Athletics on X and Instagram and Alabama Athletics on Facebook.
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