Tennessee jumped to a 16-4 lead in the first eight minutes, then stretched it out to 44-29 with a minute to play before halftime; a Bama three made the Vol lead a dozen at the break. Jim Chaney and Tee Martin were introduced to the crowd. No. 2 Michigan was already down. A good day in progress.
The first half left us with comparisons that can still make you a little uncomfortable. The Vols shut down everything Bama wanted to do at the rim, affecting shots the way we’re used to seeing it happen to our own when playing Kentucky. Alabama, a solid bubble team, just wasn’t on Tennessee’s level; good game, good effort, etc., the Vols would roll to their 12th straight victory.
In three minutes and 23 seconds, Alabama lit that script on fire.
Here’s how ESPN’s play-by-play data shows the start of the second half:
- Grant Williams miss
- John Petty three
- Admiral Schofield miss
- John Petty two
- Jordan Bone miss, offensive rebound, Admiral Schofield miss
- John Petty three
- Grant Williams miss
- Herbert Jones miss
- Kyle Alexander miss
- Kira Lewis three
- John Petty steal
- Herbert Jones layup, Bama leads 45-44
The Tide didn’t go away, and Petty stayed hot for nearly seven more minutes. With 9:52 to play, he splashed his sixth three. Alabama led 59-58. Petty had 30 points.
He didn’t score again. He attempted only two more shots.
Some of that was Jordan Bowden; the Vols tried Bowden, then Lamonte Turner, then went back to Bowden on Petty. Donta Hall’s presence (16 points, 12 rebounds) meant extended action from Kyle Alexander, preventing the Vols from using their Bone-Bowden-Turner-Williams-Schofield lineup. The Vols instead tried to chase down an Alabama team taking 26 threes with only two true guards on the floor for most of the game.
And some of that was Alabama, with that combination of open looks and perhaps a belief that Petty’s fire could spread. Petty and Kira Lewis were 9-of-16 from the arc. The rest of the team was 1-of-10. Four of those ten attempts came in the last ten minutes, when Petty couldn’t get a look.
But all of that shouldn’t have mattered. Alabama wins this game if it shoots even a little bit better than 8-of-18 at the free throw line. Tennessee, which has looked incredibly unbeatable for most of the year, looked human today.
Beatable, but not beaten.
The Vols got an and-one from Schofield with 10:14 to play, then went almost seven minutes without making another shot. Alabama’s size and physicality were bothersome for Grant Williams, who needed 17 shots to score 21 points. Lots of jump shots that went down in the first half didn’t in the second, and the Vols shot just 3-of-12 (25%) from the arc.
But the Vols helped put Alabama in drought conditions as well, getting only one field goal from a dunk at 9:25 to a layup at 3:15. This wasn’t Tennessee’s best defensive effort, but it was good enough to win. Meanwhile a jumper by Jordan Bowden took the lid off, and the Vols hit four shots in the final four minutes, including two from a previously-cold Admiral Schofield.
The end of the game is getting plenty of press: a quick travel call on Petty with three seconds left and the Vols up one. In super slow-mo it looks right, though I get how frustrating it would be to have that go against you in real time. Grant Williams fouled out on the previous possession, again a victim of a couple of iffy offensive fouls (if not the last one, definitely the one before). This is no doubt a tough loss for Alabama.
It was a toughness win for Tennessee, who could still go to number one on Monday depending on how voters feel about the outcome of Duke-Virginia. But Barnes will get to sing some of the same song from the second half against Arkansas: those 20 minutes will get you beat in March, and these 20 minutes get you beat today if Alabama hits their free throws.
We already know the Vols can play with the nation’s best from Kansas and Gonzaga. I don’t know how many other teams will present the same combination of on-fire guards and a tough match-up inside like Hall that prevents Tennessee from playing last season’s crunch time lineup. But the Vols get to learn from victory instead of defeat.
