Alabama Men’s Basketball Closes Season with NIT Loss

The Alabama men’s basketball season came to a close in the quarterfinal round of the National Invitation Tournament Tuesday evening as Alabama fell to Maryland 58-57.  With the loss, the Crimson Tide finishes the 2012-2013 season with a 23-13 record.

“I’m extremely appreciative of the crowd and the atmosphere that we got tonight,” UA head coach Anthony Grant said of the nearly 9500 fans on hand. “I thought it was electric and it was great for our guys to play in that type of atmosphere for our last home game.”

The Tide delivered a balanced offensive output on the evening as Alabama was led in scoring by Levi Randolph who netted 15 points while fellow sophomore Rodney Cooper finished with 13.  Junior guard Trevor Releford was the only other Alabama player in double figures with 11 points.

After trailing by as many as 10 in the second half, the Tide cut it to just one with a little more than five minutes remaining before the Terrapins ran their lead back up to eight with 3:40 to go in the game.

Alabama, however, pulled the game to within one point with 46 seconds to go after a Releford connected on a slashing layup attempt.  However with 3 seconds on the clock, sophomore guard Trevor Lacey, who hit three game-winning shots this season, was not able to add a fourth with a jumper off the mark as time expired.

“You look at a one-point game and I’m sure we’ll look back and think that there are a lot of things that could have been the difference but the thing that I won’t question is the fight that our guys showed,” Grant said. “We gave ourselves a chance and that’s all that you can ask as a coach.”

Maryland was led by 7-foot-1 sophomore center Alex Len, who scored 15 points.  Alabama is now 3-2 all-time against the Terrapins.