Bama Hoops Wins Tight One Versus Vandy to Lower Magic Number to 1

In a mid-day Saturday conference game clash, the No. 8 Alabama Crimson Tide (18-5, 13-1) basketball team advanced one step closer to clinching the SEC regular-season title. With their tight 82-78 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores (6-12, 2-10), Alabama’s magic number now sits at just one.

Leading the way for the Crimson Tide was Jaden Shackelford. The sophomore guard finished the game with 27 points. Shackelford went 10-for-21 in the paint and was six-for-nine at the free-throw line. Sophomore guard Jahvon Quinerly and senior forward Alex Reese also contributed with 15 and 10 points, respectively. Overall, Alabama finished with a field goal shooting percentage of just 42.6%. From the arc, Alabama went 10-for-39, a mere 25.6%.

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Scotty Pippen Jr. led the Commodores in today’s scoring. The sophomore guard tallied 24 points for Vanderbilt. Right behind Pippen was senior guard Maxwell Evans, with 18 points, and Dylan Disu, with 17 points. As a team, Vanderbilt shot a field goal percentage of 43.9%.

In Alabama head coach Nate Oat's post-game press conference, he commented that he didn't think Alabama's defense was great during the contest.

“Our defense wasn’t very good today. I’ll be honest with you, a lot of credit goes to Vanderbilt, Oats said. "This is one of the better-coached teams in the league. I got a lot of respect for Jerry Stackhouse."

Following the contest between the two teams, all seven of the Crimson Tide’s seniors were honored, in what will be the second-to-last home game in Coleman Coliseum of their careers. Among the honored athletes were Herbert Jones, Alex Reese, John Petty Jr., Tyler Barnes, Britton Johnson, and graduate students Jordan Bruner and Kendall Wall.

Coach Oats also had high praise for this year's senior class.

“Fortunate to get a win, Oats said. "Happy for the seniors on Senior Day. Proud of them for what they’ve done for the program. It’s their team."

This is the first game for Alabama since their 33-point, record-breaking beatdown over the Georgia Bulldogs last week. The Crimson Tide were scheduled to travel to College Station for a meeting with Texas A&M on Wednesday, but after the southeast got rocked by a winter storm that brought ice and snow, ‘Bama and the Aggies were forced to postpone.

Alabama will return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Fayetteville for a date with the No. 24 Arkansas Razorbacks, a team that has won six of their last seven games and sits at number two in the SEC, only 3.5 games behind the Tide. This will be a rematch- the Crimson Tide took down Arkansas in Coleman Coliseum in January and beat the Razorbacks by 31 points. This game will tip-off at 8 p.m. on ESPN2. Locally, the game can be heard on 95.3 The Bear.