Alabama hosted former Nate Oats assistant Ryan Pannone and his Arkansas State Red Wolves tonight, and emerged victorious by a score of 101-86.
This one started out a little hairy. Alabama seemingly couldn’t throw the ball into the ocean, and Arkansas State point guard Layne Taylor couldn’t miss. Just inside the 12-minute mark, the visiting Red Wolves led 19-11. Fortunately, the Tide got going.
Back to back threes from Qayden Samuels and Drew Fielder keyed a 8-0 run to pull back even and, after some back and forth, the Tide closed out the half on a 26-4 run to lead 51-34 at the break. Amari Allen played the superstar role, filling up the box score with 13 points, 8 rebounds and six assists. Fielder added 17 and Samuels 10. Keitenn Bristow hit the boards for seven rebounds, and Brandon Garrison added six. The revamped frontcourt paid big dividends, responding to Oats’ criticism after the opener by dominating the glass 37-20 in the first half.
Alabama started out strong in the second half, quickly pushing the lead out to 20 points. It got as high as 23, but Arkansas State went on a 11-0 spurt of their own to draw back within 12 at 67-55 with just under 15 to play. The Tide was sloppy during that stretch, allowing the Red Wolves to capitalize on some ugly turnovers.
After an Oats timeout, Tarris Bouie stopped the bleeding with a three from the corner. Things stayed relatively stable for a while, until the Tide put together a mini-run coming out of the 8-minute timeout on buckets by Fielder and Garrison to push the lead back out to 20. Garrison wasn’t done, scoring on the next two trips on assists by Bouie and Allen to expand the lead further. It was Amari’s tenth dime on the night, giving him his first career triple double.
Give Arkansas State credit as they kept battling, but it was too little too late. Alabama was able to score in the triple digits despite the slow start, but the offensive efficiency can still get much better. The 3-point shooting hovered around 30% all night, and the Tide turned the ball over a bit too much. They did win turnover margin again by forcing turnovers with their length, and dominated the glass. Oats should be happy with the blue collar ball tonight.
Alabama is now 2-0, with Oakland next up on Monday. We should see Aden Holloway for the first time in that one.
