Alabama Basketball Dominates Oakland 86-59
The Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball team defeated the visiting Oakland Golden Grizzlies by a score of 86-59 at Coleman Coliseum on Friday night.
Things were clicking for the Tide both offensively and defensively, and they outclassed Oakland pretty much from the opening tip. Oakland led only once, by just a point and only three minutes into the game. Alabama led the game 38-26 at half time and certainly did not take their foot off the gas from there.
With a 48 point second half, Alabama turned a dominating first half into an absolute blow out in the second. After shooting the ball poorly in the first half, Oakland improved in the second, but it was not nearly enough to keep up with the Tide's offensive explosion.
In what was one of the most exciting plays of the night, JD Davison found Charles Bediako for an alley-oop midway through the first half that got the Coleman crowd on their feet and caused Oakland to call a timeout.
Jahvon Quinnerly finished with 19 points, Charles Bediako finished with 12, JD Davison finished with 10 points along with 5 assists, and Jaden Shackelford finished with 20 points.
It was a milestone night for Jaden Shackelford, who became the 53rd player in program history to join the 1000 point club. After considering both the NBA and transfer portal this offseason, for Shackelford to reach the 1000 point mark at Alabama just four games into his junior season is almost storybook stuff, especially according to Nate Oats.
"He walked in as a freshman, one of the hardest working kids I've ever seen, earned the starting spot and played well then led us in scoring as a sophomore. When he decided to look at the NBA and wanted to make sure he was in the right spot to achieve his goals, obviously we wanted him back and you can see why," said Oats with a smile.
"He scores the ball, he knows how to play in our system well, he's a good, tough kid. He has done a great job and the fact that he's able to score 1000 points at one school just four games into his junior year just kind of speaks to the career he's had here. He's improved at everything, making better decisions, perimeter defense, my goal for him is to be a pro," finished the head coach on Shackelford.
Alabama will play again on Thanksgiving in a rematch with their first round opponent from the NCAA Tournament in Iona before a very difficult December that sees three ranked matchups in a row against Gonzaga, Houston, and Memphis. The Tide return to Coleman Coliseum for the matchup against Houston on December 11th.