HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – No. 2 Alabama basketball defeated Memphis, 96-88, on Monday night in a charity exhibition at the Von Braun Center. The Crimson Tide closed out the preseason with a perfect 2-0 record after having blitzed Wake Forest 10 days prior in Birmingham.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Clifford Omoruyi opened the scoring with a layup in the first minute of play. The first four were quiet for both teams from an offensive standpoint, but Alabama can catch fire quickly, and did, out of the first media timeout. Jarin Stevenson and Mark Sears knocked down back-to-back threes to give the Tide an 11-4 lead. The run was briefly interrupted by a Memphis layup, but Aden Holloway pushed the UA advantage to 16-6 with a transition and-1.

The Alabama lead in the first half ballooned to 13 points (26-13) after four straight points from Derrion Reid, but the Tigers slowly trimmed it to seven (30-23) after a 6-2 stretch before the under-4 break. But that quickly evaporated as Alabama went on a 16-9 run to close out the first half with a 49-29 lead. The scorching finish to the first 20 minutes was capped by a Sears three – the star guard’s third triple and the Crimson Tide’s sixth of the first half.

Memphis opened the second half by making its first six shots and cutting the Alabama lead to 14 points, but back-to-back threes from Labaron Philon and Houston Mallette put the Tide back on top by 20 before the under-16 timeout. The Tigers knocked down their first 3-pointer of the night with 13:17 left in the game – they had missed their first seven from deep. By that point, UA was 10-24 from beyond the arc, aptly illustrating the scoreboard disparity.

But the Tigers clawed their way back in the final 11 minutes. Memphis used a 9-1 run to slice Alabama’s edge in half, 71-61, with nine minutes to play. The Crimson Tide went 7:19 without a field goal but never saw its lead dwindle to single digits. A Stevenson three ended the drought and gave UA a 79-65 lead with 6:23 to play. The Tigers made things interesting late, getting as close as six points, 93-87, but Alabama held on to claim an 8-point victory.

It was a free-throw fest to end things, as the two teams combined for 96 attempts at the stripe, including 62 in the second half. The Tide went 30-48 at the line; the Tigers were 29-48.

PLAYERS OF THE GAME

Monday was a night that ended with Y, after all, and Sears led Alabama with 20 points. Sears was one of six Crimson Tide players to score in double figures, and Philon wasn’t far off from the preseason All-American, scoring 17 points. Omoruyi posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds despite seven fouls, as the teams chose to let players go on after five fouls. For Memphis, PJ Haggerty paced all scorers with 32 points. He attempted 18 free throws, and made 14 of them, and picked up eight fouls in a team-high 35 minutes.

FINAL EXHIBITION STATS

QUOTE FROM OATS

“There’s a reason we play the exhibitions – so that we can get exposed a little bit on what we got to work on. We definitely got exposed tonight a little bit. I thought our turnovers were not where we need them to be, and we got to do a better job taking care of the ball. Our defensive rebounding, our transition defense, they exposed in a bad way. They got all over the offensive boards, they had 23 O boards. They kind of came from everywhere, too. And then our transition – I mean, shoot, 36 fastbreak points is not good. 

“So we’ve got a lot of work to do before the regular season, but I thought it was good that we got some young guys. Labaron is a freshmen that got to play. Holloway’s in his first year with us, got to play a decent amount of minutes with some of those other guys being out. Derrion’s been out a lot in the summer, in the fall with some injuries, so he’s a little bit rusty, but we were able to get him 24 minutes. Cliff, we need to get Cliff kind of used to our pace and our system a little bit more. So I think we got a lot of new guys a lot of minutes. Kind of if you go through the roster, look, out of the five starters, only one was with us last year, and off the bench, Mo and Jarin were with us last year, that was it. I think we needed to get to new guys kind of used to how we play, but we gotta be a lot better in a lot of areas. 

“So super thankful Memphis agreed to do this for us. I’m glad we got to come up here to Huntsville. I think the crowd was great. I wish we’d have played a little bit better for them in the second half, but they were great. I enjoyed the game and glad we were able to get a win, but definitely got a lot to work on here.”

TID(E)BITS

– The Crimson Tide’s starting five consisted of Mark Sears, Aden Holloway, Labron Philon, Derrion Reid and Clifford Omoruyi. One returner, two transfers and two true freshmen.

– Alabama was once again without four scholarship players on Monday night. Grant Nelson, Aiden Sherrell, Latrell Wrightsell and Chris Youngblood were all in street clothes. Youngblood is expected to be out until December, but the other injuries are not serious.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Alabama will open the 2024-25 season on Monday, Nov. 4, against UNC Asheville. The Crimson Tide will welcome the Bulldogs to Coleman Coliseum at 8 p.m. It will air live on ESPNU.

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