by OWB
The Alabama Crimson Tide doused the flames of the No. 8 ranked Tennessee Vols 8 game winning streak Saturday evening. It was a hard to game to watch if you were a Vol fan. Both teams took the court wearing their throwback jerseys, but Tennessee might want to throw back the throwbacks after last night. The Tide pummeled Tennessee 92-79.
Alabama (15-9) (8-4 SEC) got off to the quick start, but Tennessee (19-4) (10-2 SEC) battled back making 10 of their first 13 shots. It seemed like this was going to be heavyweight fight, but the Tide kept rolling while the Vols washed out. After converting 10 of 13 from the floor, Tennessee went 6:44 without scoring a field goal while Alabama went on to shoot the lights out.
Alabama shot an unbelievable 76% in the first half making 19 of their 25 shots while the Vols could only muster 40% (14-35) from the floor.
“At the beginning of the game, they really put it to us,’’ said UT guard Chris Lofton. “That really cost us.â€
And it did cost the Vols. When halftime rolled around, the Vols found themselves down by 16 points on the road at the hands of one of its biggest rivals.
When the start of the second half came around, it appeared that Alabama had cooled off and Tennessee was going to make a run at them, but the run never came.
“It’s hard to get momentum when you can’t make a stop on defense,†said Dane Bradshaw “I just kept taking the ball out of the net.â€
Tennessee outscored Alabama in the second half 38-35 and shooting 42.5% from the field while Alabama shot a lowly 34.5% from the floor in the second half, but it was enough for the Tide. The Vols just couldn’t overcome the huge first half deficit and Alabama couldn’t miss from the free throw line down the stretch shooting 88% (28-30).
“We knew they couldn’t keep shooting the ball the whole game as well as they did in the first half, but when they stopped shooting the ball real well, they were still doing things to keep the lead where it was.’’ said UT guard Jujuan Smith.
Chris Lofton led the Vols in scoring again, Lofton was 7 of 15 and hit six of his eight 3 point shots scoring 22 points.
“I don’t think we’re going to see a whole lot of people in this arena shoot the ball like Chris Lofton can shoot it. My goodness,†Alabama’s Coach Gottfried said.
When Coach Pearl was confronted about Lofton getting open and shooting more, Pearl said “They hold him the whole time. Both hands on him, it’s really hard for him to get open. That’s an issue we’re really going to have to look at. If you put a camera on him, I think every time down the floor he’d be held.â€
Major Wingate was a major concern in the Alabama game. Wingate turned the ball over 5 times and only converted 2 of 6 field goals while only pulling down 5 rebounds.
“We rely on certain people,†said Wingate “I didn’t step up today. I take full responsibility.â€
While Major is taking responsibility, you can bet that Coach Bruce Pearl will make the entire team take responsibility when they return to Knoxville for practice.
“They manhandled us,’’ said Pearl.
Pearl will most likely focus on defense considering that Alabama was on pace to score 114 points by the games end.
“I don’t think anybody is scared of our half-court defense, when you get ready to play Tennessee, you can say lots of different things about how they might beat you, but our half-court defense isn’t one of them.â€
Tennessee is last in the SEC when it comes to field goal percentage defense. Coach Pearl will certainly want to address that before the Vols head to Florida to take on the Gators on Wednesday night. Tip off is 8:00 and will be televised on Jefferson Pilot.
Florida (22-4) (8-4) lost to Arkansas so Tennessee maintains their 2 game lead in the SEC East.