Alabama basketball team finished strong to beat Drake in Orlando

Alabama Basketball needed a bounce-back win after losing to Iona on Thanksgiving. The Tide got what it needed, taking down the Drake Bulldogs 80-71. Calling it as it was – Nate Oats’ team won ugly. A blue-collar effort led to a late push that turned a tight game into what appears in the box score to be an easy win.

It was anything but easy. Crimson Tide head coach, Nate Oats summed it up well.

"I’m really proud of our guys. We didn’t shoot free throws well again, we didn’t shoot it well from three again, turned it over too much and still figured out a way to get a 9-point win against a quality team."

Yes, Drake is a quality team and the win will look very good in March. Going into the contest, Ken Pomeroy had the Crimson Tide ranked No. 23 and Drake at No. 57. Drake stands to become a 20-plus win NCAA Tournament team.

Alabama certainly made the game hard on themselves. Weak at the foul line again (59%) and again inconsistent from outside the arc (26%), the Tide was forced to close strong to win. Trailing by four points with just under nine minutes left and tied with 5:47 to go, Alabama took control to lead by 10 points at the 2:10 mark.

In the game’s second half, the Crimson Tide shot 60.7 percent after shooting 48.3 percent in the first half. The Crimson Tide made seven of its last 10 shots from the floor, plus six made free throws in the game’s last three minutes.

Alabama Basketball Starter Juwan Gary

The glue that held the Crimson Tide together was Juwan Gary. In his first start of the season, Gary scored 14 points on just nine field-goal attempts. Even more importantly, Gary led the Tide with 10 rebounds, including four offensive rebounds.

The leading scorer for Nate Oats was Jahvon Quinerly with 18 points. Jaden Shackelford had 14 points, Keon Ellis added nine points, Noah Gurley had eight points and J.D. Davison added seven points. Ellis was the second-leading rebounder with six boards.

Commenting on the win, Nate Oats said,

"We had a long discussion as a team after the (Iona) game about just playing the right way, what we talked about in the offseason and what we have to do to fix some issues. I thought we tried really hard today."

Sometimes trying really hard is enough. After Sunday’s game against Miami, the three games that follow will require more than trying really hard. After the win, the Tide eased up to No. 22 in the KenPom rankings. In the next four games, the Tide plays the No. 1 (Gonzaga), No. 5 (Houston) and No. 11 (Memphis) teams in the Pomeroy rankings.

Alabama Basketball is 5-1 and next plays the 4-2 Miami Hurricanes at 5:30 PM CST Sunday afternoon.