Alabama Men’s Basketball Beats Georgia

The Alabama men’s basketball team snapped Georgia’s five-game win streak with a 52-45 victory in Stegeman Coliseum Tuesday night. The Crimson Tide goes to 16-8 overall and 8-3 in Southeastern Conference play and is now 8-2 over its last 10 games.

“It was great to see our guys stay aggressive like that,” UA head coach Anthony Grant said. “It was good to see us take those big shots, and fortunately for us, they went in. Georgia’s a big, physical team and they run a lot of guys in there. It was good to see our guys in there, doing a good job of matching their physicality.”

Sophomore guard Rodney Cooper was the only Tide player in double digits as he scored 14 points and grabbed five rebounds. It was Cooper’s fourth straight double-digit game. Junior center Moussa Gueye had four blocks for the second game in a row while sophomore guard Levi Randolph grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

“In a game like this, when our offense is in a slump, we rely on our defense to create offensive possessions,” Randolph said. “Coach (Anthony Grant) tells us to pick good shots and if we make good shots and play defense we have a chance to win games. This is a big SEC win but we have to keep getting better and improve.”

Alabama’s stringent defense held the Bulldogs to 30.8% (16-52) from the field.

“Being able to change defenses between man and zone really gave us a boost,” Grant said. “They came out and took the lead, but I thought the way our guys responded, that’s what you really want to see as a coach, and I’m really proud of them.

Georgia guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 22 points and eight rebounds, both of which were team-highs.

“This was a huge game for us,” Grant said. “Georgia was playing great basketball, and they were one of the hottest teams in the league coming into this game. This was a great opportunity to come in and get a quality road win. We needed to play to win the game and I thought our guys came out and all the way through the game, they played to win.”

Alabama returns home Saturday, Feb. 16, against South Carolina. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. CT. The game can be heard locally on 95.3 WFFN FM.