Alabama basketball holds off Arkansas State in physical battle, 88-79

Alabama survived a physical grind of a game on Friday night at Coleman Coliseum, holding off Arkansas State 88-79.

The teams combined for 52 fouls and 80 free throw attempts, with the second-ranked Crimson Tide (2-0) going just 28-for-44 from the line. The game was tied with 7:08 left before Mouhamed Dioubate’s tip-in put Alabama on top for good at 70-68.

“That’s a really good team we just played,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “I thought they were well coached. They got great talent. Played hard. We needed to be pushed. I think they exposed some stuff we got to work on. They gave us everything they had. It was a tie game with seven minutes to go in the game.

“I think our guys have to realize, like the teams we put on the schedule, if we don’t play well, we don’t move the ball, we play selfish like I thought we did tonight at times, we’re not going to beat these teams. I thought we did a good enough job on the offensive glass and you know, defensively we were solid at times.”

All-America guard Mark Sears scored 19 points for Alabama, while forward Grant Nelson had 12 off the bench. Rutgers transfer Clifford Omoruyi added 12 points and a team-high 9 rebounds despite being limited to 17 minutes due to foul trouble.

Officials’ whistles were the story of the game’s first 20 minutes, during which the teams combined for 31 fouls and 53 free throws. Alabama’s Jarin Stevenson picked up four fouls in the first half, and finished with just 2 points and five rebounds in 10 minutes.

Alabama led by as many as 16 in the first half before Arkansas State — the preseason favorite in the Sun Belt Conference — closed the gap to 43-40 at halftime. The Red Wolves — coached by former Alabama assistant Bryan Hodgson — never led after going up 5-4 early, but didn’t fall behind by two possessions permanently until Sears hit two free throws to make it 74-70 with 5:15 remaining.

“They exposed some stuff some stuff on the defensive side, but we really won the game on the offensive boards,” Oats said. “I mean, we had 21 second chance points and they only had seven. I thought we made a big point of emphasis on keeping them off the offensive boards, I thought we did a decent job of that.

“We did a good job of getting our offensive glass, but a lot of other areas we didn’t shoot it well, had a lot to do with them. We didn’t get out in transition very much, ended up with more fastbreak points than we did and it had a lot to do with them. I thought they had a good game plan defensively.”

Freshman guard Labaron Philon also scored in double figures with 12 points, while Derrion Reid had 10 and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. added 9. Alabama made only six of 31 3-point attempts, with Sears going 0-for-5 and Wrightsell 1-for-9.

Kobe Julien — the preseason Sun Belt Player of the Year — scored a game-high 20 points for Arkansas State (1-1), while Taryn Todd added 18 and Rashaud Marshall chipped in 11 points with 8 rebounds. The Red Wolves missed 13 free throws and went just 6-for-28 on 3-point attempts.

“A lot of their staff came from here, Brian was with me for eight years,” Oats said. “They’re doing a great job, that’s a really good roster. I thought Brian did a really good job tonight, they did a great job and I think they’re going to win a lot of games this year.”

Alabama hosts McNeese at 6 p.m. Monday. That game will air on SEC Network.