Alabama basketball scored a blowout win over Kent State on Sunday, beating the Golden Flashes 81-54 at Coleman Coliseum. The win moved the Crimson Tide to 10-2 on the season, with just one more game, next Sunday against South Dakota State, between UA and SEC play.
Here’s what to know from Sunday’s pre-Christmas win for Alabama.
Ugly start
The regularly high-scoring Alabama offense was nowhere to be seen at the beginning of Sunday’s game. Fortunately for the Crimson Tide, Kent State couldn’t muster much scoring either.
At the under-16 timeout in the first half, the score was tied 2-2. The Tide’s lone points came on two Mark Sears free throws, and UA was 0-for-7 from the field before Aden Holloway made its first bucket at the 15:04 mark.
Alabama turned the ball over four times before the under-16, but was bailed out by three steals on defense. After the timeout, things got a bit better.
The Crimson Tide offense never got fully going during the first half. By halftime, it was 13-of-33 from the field, but just 2-for-17 from three-point range.
Still, Alabama was up 39-24 on Kent State, an advantage it would never give up.
Defensive improvement
Even as the offense lagged at times due to turnovers, Alabama’s defense remained stellar. It was a marked improvement over UA’s last time out, when North Dakota’s Treyson Eaglestaff dropped 40 points on the Crimson Tide.
“We did make a big point of emphasis on defense,” Oats said after the game. “Especially after that debacle up in North Dakota with Eaglestaff.”
Beyond the obvious fact that Kent State only managed 54 points, UA shut down the Golden Flashes’ best offensive player, Jalen Sullinger, holding him to seven. Overall, KSU only made 28% of its attempts from the field, 7% from three.
“I think we really locked in for most of the game tonight,” UA forward Grant Nelson said. “The things we emphasized at practice, I thought they carried over.”
‘Keep shooting’
In uncharacteristic fashion for an Oats-coached team, Alabama has struggled from beyond the arc. On Sunday, the Tide made just nine of its 35 attempts from deep.
Still, the coach didn’t want his team to let up going forward.
“We just gotta keep shooting good threes,” Oats said. “Get the right guys taking them. We’re never going to pass down an open look from three.”
Late in the game, Aden Holloway came alive from that range. He finished the contest making three of his final four attempts, after missing his first four.
“My teammates kept finding me throughout the game,” Holloway said. “Obviously I wasn’t making them at first, but if you keep shooting, they’re gonna go in eventually.”
