Alabama Basketball gets humbled on the road
Alabama Basketball ended a nine-game winning streak by losing on the road against the Oklahoma Sooners in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
A letdown game was inevitable for a Crimson Tide team that was playing at an extremely high level for an extended period of time. Alabama basketball was bound to eventually lose a game that it “shouldn’t” lose on paper, but no one expected it to happen the way it did. Bama lost by 24 points to an Oklahoma team that will not even make the NCAA tournament barring a miracle late-season run.
The Tide continued its recent poor shooting trend, going 37.9 percent from the field and making just six three-pointers at a 27.3 percent clip. Meanwhile, OU got hot early and never cooled down. The Sooners shot 57.6 percent from the field and an absurd 9-13 from the three-point line (69.2 percent).
Oklahoma guard Grant Sherfield hit four of those triples, finishing with 30 points and six assists. Jalen Hill added 26 points and eight rebounds, while Tanner Groves notched a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
For Alabama, true freshman Rylan Griffen had one of the best games of his young career. Griffen went 3-4 from the three-point line and led the team with 15 points and seven rebounds. Fellow freshmen Brandon Miller and Noah Clowney had rough days shooting the basketball, combining to go 7-24 from the field and 1-8 from beyond the arc. Miller had 11 points and seven rebounds while Clowney tallied 10 points and eight rebounds.
Mark Sears scored 11 points for Alabama and Jahvon Quinerly scored 12 off the bench before fouling out. The point guard duo also struggled to find the range, going 1-7 from downtown.
Alabama basketball has demonstrated the ability to shoot the ball with efficiency this season, and it has done so with a significant sample size. There is no reason to believe this shooting slump will persist for much longer.
While Bama is in a slump, however, it must shore up the controllable factors. Going forward, the team has to do a better job of protecting the basketball and giving effort on defense.
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On the bright side, Alabama basketball is still undefeated in SEC play at 8-0. This humbling loss should give the Crimson Tide a brief mental reset before hosting Vanderbilt on Tuesday night.