No. 12 Alabama men’s basketball withstood a second-half surge from the Clemson Tigers and escaped with a 90-84 win in the ACC/SEC Challenge on Wednesday.
As former head coach Avery Johnson often said, the game was a “tale of two halves.” The Crimson Tide was outscored 54-45 in the second half after holding a 15-point lead at halftime.
It trailed several times in the second half but found scoring in key moments down the stretch.
“Obviously, when you jump [up] 19 the first 10 minutes of the game, you’d like to close out the next 30 a lot better than we did,” head coach Nate Oats said postgame. “With the guys that we had down, I’m happy we got the win. We’re gonna have to work on our defensive mentality playing with a lead.”
Alabama was again led in scoring by star guard Labaron Philon Jr., who tied his career-high with 29 points. Freshman forwards Amari Allen and London Jemison followed Philon in the scoring effort, scoring 20 and 13 points, respectively.
Allen secured the first double-double of his career, snatching down 11 rebounds. He saw extended playing time with guards Latrell Wrightsell Jr. and Aden Holloway out with injuries.
“Coming into the game with both of them out, I knew I was gonna have to come and be aggressive [and] get some pressure off Labaron,” Allen said.
Alabama went scorched earth to begin the game, connecting on 6 of 7 field goal attempts and 4 of 4 attempts from 3-point range. Philon accounted for half of the team’s 16 points in the opening four minutes and went a perfect 3 of 3 from the field.
Clemson’s offense struggled early on, shooting just 29.7% in the first half. Center Aiden Sherrell continued to show defensive improvement from a year ago, notching four blocks in the first half and another four in the second, which put him at 21 on the year.
Despite its struggles on offense, Clemson was able to cool the Crimson Tide’s red-hot offensive attack and close down its lead to 15 points at the break. It won the battle on the offensive glass 11 to 9 in the first half, and limited Alabama to just one of its last seven from 3-point range.
In the second half, it was Clemson’s turn to go scorched earth. Its offense quickly erased the Crimson Tide’s double-digit advantage with a 20-7 run, and tied the game at 54 apiece with 12:02 left to play. Soon after, Tigers forward Dillon Hunter gave Clemson its first lead since the 19:41 mark in the first half, as Alabama continued to struggle from the field.
Philon and Allen were the only Crimson Tide players to find the bottom of the net in the second half until forward Taylor Bol Bowen sank a layup at the 11:40 mark to retake the lead at 56-54.
The Crimson Tide was able to muster some offense through Philon and Allen after the Tigers tied the game. It later rattled off a 6-0 run — thanks to triples from Jemison and guard Houston Mallette — to snatch a 70-66 lead.
The two teams traded blows for much of the final eight minutes, as the Alabama offense awoke from the lull it had entered for much of the second half. An 8-1 Crimson Tide run in the final 2:31 secured the triumph.
“Clemson’s going to win a lot of games this year, and they’re tough,” Oats said.
Oats added that any team coached by Tigers head coach Brad Brownell isn’t going to quit.
No. 12 Alabama returns to the court Sunday, hosting the University of Texas at San-Antonio Roadrunners at Coleman Coliseum. Tipoff is slated for 1 p.m. CT and can be streamed on SEC Network.
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