TUSCALOOSA — The Alabama men’s basketball fell to the Florida Gators, 71-53, in Coleman Coliseum on Saturday afternoon. The loss marks only the third at home (9-3) for the Crimson Tide this season.
For the 17th game this season, freshman Kira Lewis Jr. led all Alabama players in scoring as he finished with 14 points. Senior Donta Hall added 10 points and seven rebounds on the day, while sophomore John Petty Jr. finished with 10 points off the bench.
“I don’t even need a stat sheet tonight,” Alabama head coach Avery Johnson said. “Give Florida credit. They came in and played extremely well. They took it to us from the start. They threw the first punch and we stumbled for the rest of the game. We tried to make a little bit of a run, I think we cut it to eight in the second half, but they were always in control of the game.”
The Gators (14-11, 6-6 SEC) jumped out to a 12-2 lead through the first seven-plus minutes, holding the Crimson Tide (15-10, 6-6) to 0-of-6 shooting while forcing four turnovers over the stretch. Florida went on to hold a nine-point advantage at the first half break, 35-26.
The Tide trailed by 16 until an 8-0 run cut the lead to eight, 52-44, with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game. Alabama seemed to have momentum and was able to get defensive stops in consecutive possessions. However, Hall missed a short jumper and Petty missed a three-pointer which was then followed by a basket and a free throw from Florida to put them back up in double digits. From that point on, Florida held a double-digit lead the rest of the game, taking its largest lead of the game in the final seconds.
Florida was led by freshman Andrew Nembhard who finished hitting all nine field goals and finishing with a game-high 21 points. Freshman Keyontae Johnson recorded the games only double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Gators outrebounded the Tide, 31-23, marking just the seventh time this season UA lost the rebounding battle.
Alabama shot 44.2 percent (19-of-43) from the field in the contest, while Florida connected on 54.0 percent (27-of-50) shooting from the floor – the best any team has shot against UA this season. The Crimson Tide held a 20-14 advantage in bench points and an 18-8 edge in points, marking the 20th game this season with the bench scoring at least 20 points in a game.
Alabama will travel to College Station, Texas to take on Texas A&M on Tuesday night. The game is scheduled to tipoff at 8 p.m. and will be televised on SEC Network.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.