Alabama Men’s Basketball Falls to Dayton, 81-76

The Alabama men’s basketball team fell to Dayton, 81-76, Wednesday night at Coleman Coliseum.

“Dayton was the better team tonight,” UA head coach Anthony Grant said. “They came out right from the tip and set the tone with the pace of the game. They really hurt us in transition and our press was extremely ineffective.”

Sophomore Guard Trevor Lacey led the Crimson Tide with 16 points while going 6-6 from the free-throw line. He also had a team-high five assists on the night. Dayton guard Kevin Dillard and forward Josh Benson combined for 46 points to help Dayton to the win.

Dayton went ahead early, 20-9, before Alabama went on a 17-5 run to take a quick lead at 26-25. Dayton would eventually take a 38-33 into the half.

“Those are the things that we’ve tried to address all year long,” Grant said. “We talked about it before the game and our guys are aware about the need for us to come out and start well. We weren’t able to do that tonight. As a basketball team that is what’s going to allow us to be successful. I thought the three-point line was the difference in the game.”

For the game, Alabama shot 37.0 percent (20-54) from the field, while going 28 percent (7-25) from three-point range. Dayton, however, shot 49.1 percent (26-53) from the field and 42.1 percent (8-19) from behind the three-point line.

In addition to Lacey, three other Alabama starters finished in double digits. Junior Trevor Releford had 13, sophomore Levi Randolph had 15 and sophomore Rodney Cooper added 12 along with a team-high seven rebounds.

The 81 points by Dayton are the most against Alabama at home since February 21^st, 2009 when Alabama beat Mississippi State 87-85 in a double-overtime victory.