Alabama holds on to beat Vanderbilt behind Quinerly’s 19 points
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – After trailing by five at intermission, the alab Tuesday night.
It was the Crimson Tide’s (18-10, 8-7 SEC) third consecutive win inside Memorial Gymnasium – a first for the UA program since achieving the feat in the mid-1980s.It was also UA’s fourth win over the team’s last five contests.
Junior guard Jahvon Quinerly came off the bench to score 19 points and lead four Alabama players in double figures. Freshman guard JD Davison earned his first career double-double with a 10-point, 10-rebound performance to go along with five assists and three steals. Graduate transfer Noah Gurley added 11 points and three blocks and senior Keon Ellis had 10 points and eight boards in the win.
Vanderbilt (14-13, 6-9) was led by Scotty Pippen Jr.’s 24 points, six assists and six steals.
HEAD COACH NATE OATS POSTGAME COMMENTS
“I was really pleased with our guys’ effort. We didn’t play particularly well on offense in the first half, had way too many turnovers. This was a character win. We had every chance we could have to fold. Things weren’t going our way offensively in the first half… we have to do a better job guarding without falling. We had a lot of guys make some big plays for us. Offensively, we have room to grow. We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well but we hit our free throws tonight. We don’t win this game without every last free throw we made tonight. I’m happy for our guys. For us to beat a team that had won four straight SEC games here at their home and in a place that Alabama has historically struggled to get wins, I thought this was a big character win for us.”
TEAM STATS
With the four-point win, 18 of the last 19 games played between Alabama and Vanderbilt have been decided by 10 or fewer points with 11 of those contests being decided by five or less
Alabama connected on 22-of-25 free throws in the contest for an 88.0 percent clip which was a season-best mark
Davison led the Tide matched his career high in rebounds and steals while his five dimes led the team
The win was the UA’s fifth in six meetings between the two teams
FIRST HALF
After a slow start, Vanderbilt scored nine-straight points to jump out to a 13-5 lead at the 13:28 mark with the help of some early turnovers by the Tide
Alabama scored six unanswered points to bring the game within two (13-11) at 10:53, but the Commodores held an 11-5 advantage over the next 4:14 minutes of action to push their lead to 24-16
The two teams traded baskets as Vanderbilt took a five-point lead heading into the locker room
Davison led the team with nine points and seven rebounds, as Ellis added seven points in the half
Vanderbilt took advantage of the Tide’s 12 first half turnovers, outscoring the Tide 21-8 in the category
SECOND HALF
Trailing by seven, 42-35, early in the second half, Alabama used a 14-3 run to take the lead for good at 49-45 as Quinerly scored nine straight points during the spurt
After the Commodores trimmed the deficit to two points, the Crimson Tide scored nine consecutive points to take its largest lead at 64-53 with 6:57 remaining
Vanderbilt would close the gap with an 12-4 run for a 68-65 UA lead inside the final two minutes with the Tide holding
Alabama closed out the game by knocking down 7-of-8 free throws over the final five minutes
Quinerly made 5-of-9 from the floor, including a perfect 3-of-3 from distance, as he scored 17 points in the half
