Alabama Basketball: Tide gets hard-fought ‘must-win’ over South Carolina

Alabama Basketball: The Crimson Tide did what it had to do to edge South Carolina for an important SEC road win.

It was a win Tuesday night in Columbia, SC and Alabama Basketball needed whatever kind of win it could get. Losing to a team with the low NCAA NET ranking of South Carolina (No. 108) would have tarnished the Tide’s NCAA resume.

It was the fourth straight game Nate Oats’ team made enough mistakes to lose. Any win, however, even after a sometimes ugly performance, is a good win for Alabama Basketball.

Against a better team than South Carolina, 22 turnovers will not win many games. Just good enough three-point shooting of 35 percent and great shooting from the line (85 percent) saved the game for the Crimson Tide.

An obviously hurting Herbert Jones struggled through 29 minutes of play before fouling out. Jones looks to be at best, at 75 percent, and his injuries have hurt his scoring. He was 1-for-7 versus the Gamecocks, with four turnovers. He fought hard and aided the Tide cause with a team-high seven assists, plus five rebounds.

Although only 3-for-10 outside the arc, John Petty Jr. led the Crimson Tide in scoring with 20 points. Jahvon Quinerly had 13 points. Josh Primo had 12 points and Jaden Shackelford, 10 points. Quinerly hit some key buckets for the Tide but had four turnovers in 23 minutes of play. In 18 minutes of play, James Rojas played well on defense, got four rebounds and made four key free throws in the game’s last three and a half minutes.

Commenting after the game, Nate Oats said,

"Tough hard-fought win, that’s a hard-playing group, that’s what Frank’s known forIt’s not bad to win a close one either. We did some dumb things late in the game but we did enough to win. Rojas steps up, goes 4-4 at the line late. Showed a lot of mental toughness, he played hard and won the blue-collar award.Happy with the win, good to get tough road wins. Wins are tough to come by in the SEC. Our guys are learning how to win.Our three seniors, I can’t say enough about those three. I thought Alex Reese played super hard. … Herb obviously is still not back to himself, but he gives us enough. Those three guys were great."

Juwan Gary got his first Crimson Tide start Tuesday night, playing in his home town. Unfortunately, he injured a shoulder two minutes into the contest and was not able to return.

Alabama basketball fans are beginning to wonder if the Crimson Tide can return to its form of three weeks when it breezed through three blowout wins. A poor start put the Tide in a hole again against South Carolina. The lapses are troubling, but in the comment below, Nate Oats is correct about his team’s toughness.

Despite losing two of three before Tuesday night, most projections still had the Crimson Tide as an NCAA Tournament No. 2 seed. Next up is another ‘must-win’ against the Georgia Bulldogs, Saturday in Tuscaloosa.