By Robert Lastella
It has been a roller-coaster of a season for Alabama; however, the second half of their Round of 64 matchup against Hofstra was smooth sailing and they will head into the Round of 32 with momentum.
Early on in Friday afternoon’s matchup, Hofstra gave Alabama everything they could handle, even taking a 10 point lead in the first half, 28-18, with 9:20 to play.
Alabama began to adjust, taking a 2-point lead into halftime, before going on to dominate the Pride in the final frame.
Alabama out-scored Hofstra 53-35 in the second half, shooting 58.1% from the field, while holding the Pride to just 38.9% shooting in what ultimately developed into a 90-70 Alabama win.
The Crimson Tide found their groove during the second half, limiting open looks for Hofstra and turning cold stretches from the Pride offense into points on the other end. According to Labaron Philon Jr, he and his teammates were able to bounce back by utilizing the adjustments the coaching staff enacted at half time.
“I would say being ready to make adjustments, for us, listening to the coaches, the coaches got great adjustments. They do a great job of getting the game plan ready and have multiple things we can throw out there. We're not just based off one thing. We've got multiple things we can do. Once everybody locked in, it shows the second half our pace broke them down a little bit,” Philon said.
It was the Philon show in the second half, as the second year guard took over in the final stanza. He scored 21 of his 29 points, providing the Crimson Tide with numerous clutch buckets that help keep Hofstra at bay as they attempted to fight back.
Photo by Christian Proscia
While he dominated at times, it was a team effort for Alabama, as he was joined in double figures by Taylor Bol Bowen and Aiden Sherrell who each had 15 points a piece, as well as Latrell Wrightsell, Jr and Amari Allen who each chipped in 11.
Alabama’s ability to find a bucket from numerous avenues whenever they needed it made it really hard for Hofstra to slow them down and force a comeback, as if they slowed one scoring option down, another was able to get them a bucket.
The scoring hasn’t been an issue this season for Alabama, as they have been able to get points in droves, despite dealing with numerous personnel changes throughout the season. The problems have arisen from the little things, with inefficient rebounding being something that has plagued the team throughout the season.
Against Hofstra, rebounding was a strength for Alabama. The Crimson Tide outrebounded the Pride 46-34, also hauling in 17 offensive rebounds, which the Tide converted to 13 second chance points. While it wasn’t a perfect effort, Alabama improved in areas in which they struggled in offensive rebounding, and it made a difference in the end, according to Alabama HC Nate Oats.
“We've tried to focus on it throughout the year. We were not great at it, for large parts of the year. We have shown that we're capable of it at times. I think about what Taylor did against St. John's. The whole team is built on toughness. We've done it in somewhat bigger games. We've also gotten drilled on it in somewhat bigger games. Arizona, Purdue, just got destroyed, Oats said.
We've challenged our guys. We've made it a bigger point of emphasis, and it's great to see Aiden Sherrell come up with 15, Philon come up with 8, and a lot of other guys pitched in. In the first half, the only guy that had no offensive rebound was Sherrell. So we challenged everybody else. I think he had six in the first half and nobody else had one.
Photo by Christian Proscia
Second half, we had guys, Amari ends up with two, Philon with two, and Taylor gets one. We end up with 17 O boards. They had 13, which we did end up winning the glass by 12, but the second-chance points, we're only plus 5 on it. We've got some room to improve on that, but it's better than it was, like you said, in some other games.”
It has been a distraction-filled season so far for Alabama, between numerous injuries and off-the-court drama, it could have been easy to fall flat in a first round matchup against a pesky mid-major. There was no evidence of distraction on Friday, especially in the second-half, as Alabama looked to play a brand of basketball that could lead to success in March.
Their next matchup in the Round of 32 will come against another squad who has had to overcome adversity, Texas Tech. Both the Red Raiders and Crimson Tide found a way to win their first round matchup and push aside any issues they may have; however, on Sunday only one team will be able to move forward.
There is a lot to study for Texas Tech, as they have changed their offense nearly entirely following the injury to JT Toppin and according to Oats, he and his staff will be dialed in on everything recent, while putting pre-Toppin injury film on the back burner.
“I don't even think we'll spend a whole lot of time on anything before Toppin went out because they had -- I mean, if we were going to lose Philon or whatever, you'd have to make an adjustment. I think we'll spend most of our time looking at their games since Toppin went out, Oats said.
They're still very good. They've got a lot of shooting. They've got very good guard play. They've still got bigs that they play a very slow, methodical style that could cause problems if we're not locked in on the defensive end with a quick turnaround. We play in two days. So you've only got one day between games. We have to get locked in because they.”
One side will lock in and advance to the Sweet 16, the other’s season will end, we shall see what is in store between Texas Tech and Alabama when they do battle on Sunday.
