Tide fall to Gonzaga

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - The No. 4/5 Alabama men’s basketball team fell short in a high-powered offensive matchup with No. 15/15 Gonzaga, falling 100-90 Saturday afternoon in the C.M. Newton Classic inside Legacy Arena.

Alabama (9-2) was led on offense by a monster performance from Brandon Miller. The freshman scored 36 points, include 26 in the second half alone, on 12-of-22 shooting from the field and 6-of-11 from beyond the arc. It marked the most points by any Crimson Tide player since Kira Lewis Jr. put up 37 points at Georgia on Feb. 8, 2020. Fellow freshman Jaden Bradley, in his second career start, added a season-high 18 points in the effort.

The Bulldogs (9-3) made 74.1% of their shots from the field in the second half (20-of-27), and were led by All-American Drew Timme who finished with 29 points and 10 rebounds.

HEAD COACH NATE OATS POSTGAME COMMENTS

“That was a good college basketball game and I’m happy the fans in Birmingham got to see it. Obviously, it didn’t go the way we wanted it to. They’re a quality team, and offensively they’re really good. We could’ve done better on defense today, and we turned it over 21 times. Gonzaga’s been one of the best programs in the country, and they have been for a long time now. I thought our guys battled with them for a lot of the game. Defensively, it’s hard to come up with a good plan against them. They’ve got good guards. (Drew) Timme was great, and we struggled with him. We need to do a better job having different options to guard them. They shot the ball really well. There were some bright spots in the game. Obviously, Brandon played well, and I think we had some other guys playing well. We’ve got to get everybody back playing better. We’ll get better from this. We play these good games to figure out what we need to get better at, and we have plenty of stuff we need to work on. We’ll get back and work on it, and we’ll have one more test before Christmas and start SEC play after Christmas.”

TEAM STATS

Brandon Miller (36) and Jaden Bradley (18) were the only Crimson Tide players to reach double digits, combing to score 54 of UA’s 90 total points
Miller now has a team-leading five games of 20 or more points this season
The Crimson Tide outrebounded the Bulldogs 37-30, led by 13 rebounds from Noah Clowney
Gonzaga finished the game shooting 57 percent from the field behing the 74-percent shooting in the second half, while Alabama hit 52 percent from the floor and 32 percent from deep
Alabama shot 83% (20-of-24) from the free throw line, its second highest percentage of the season
Miller’s 36 points ranks him tied for 18th in the single-game scoring leaders in program history
Noah Clowney grabbed 13 total rebounds; the freshman has recorded double-digit rebounding in five games this season.

FIRST HALF

The Crimson Tide jumped out to an early 16-7 lead over the first 4:12 of play, with all 16 UA points coming from freshmen Jaden Bradley, Noah Clowney and Brandon Miller.
Gonzaga used a 19-6 run over 4:22 to take its first lead of the game at 32-26
Both teams traded baskets over the final 10 minutes of the half, with three lead changes and two ties before the Bulldogs took 47-42 lead into the half
Alabama outrebounded Gonzaga 25-18 in the first half, with Charles Bediako grabbing four offensive rebounds.
Bradley led the Crimson Tide in scoring in the first half with 12, while also dishing out a pair of assists in his second career start
Miller also finished with double-digit points in the opening period, scoring 10 and grabbing three rebounds

SECOND HALF

Brandon Miller came out of the break hot on offense and stayed that way for the remainder of the contest, scoring 26 of the Tide’s 48 second half points
The Crimson Tide shot 80 percent (8-10) from the charity strike in the second half
Noah Clowney led the way with four rebounds in the second half to add to his 11 total on the day
Miller’s 26 second half points and 36 total points are the most by any Alabama player this season
Gonzaga shot 74 percent (20-27) in the second half, compared to 58 percent shooting (18-of-31) from the Tide

UP NEXT

Alabama will return to Coleman Coliseum to face the Jackson State Tigers Tuesday night
The Crimson Tide will tip-off against the Tigers at 6 p.m. CT with the contest airing live on the SEC Network