After the embarrassing loss to Oklahoma, coach Nate Oats said that Alabama had lost their edge, but it’s safe to say the Crimson Tide got their edge back, dominating Vanderbilt 101-44 Tuesday night. The 57-point win for the Crimson Tide was the largest SEC win in program history. With this win over Vanderbilt, Alabama now has 19 wins on the season, matching the team’s win total from last season.
Coming off their worst performance of the season, it was obvious that Alabama wanted to start fast and that’s exactly what they did. Vanderbilt opened up the game by scoring the first five points, but Mark Sears hit a three-pointer to end the early run by the Commodores and start an 18-0 run for the Crimson Tide that Vanderbilt could never recover from.
Alabama’s offense was red hot, hitting 10 three-pointers in the first half with a 58% shooting percentage from the field. The Crimson Tide defense also showed up big in the first half holding the Commodores to just 15 first-half points on just a 15 percent field goal percentage giving the Tide a 43-15 lead going into halftime.
The offensive explosion was led by Brandon Miller once again with his game-high 22 points while hitting six three-pointers. To go along with his game-high in points, Miller also pulled in a game-high eight rebounds. Nimari Burnett came off the bench adding a spark to the Alabama offense providing 16 points, making four of his seven three-point attempts.
In the blowout victory in which Alabama scored 101 points, the team set a new season high in assists with 29. Mark Sears provided a game-high eight assists just edging out Jahvon Quinerly who provided seven assists for the Crimson Tide.
Once again Alabama dominated their usual categories of rebounds, 45-33, and points in the paint, 32-18. Tuesday Alabama got a huge boost from a different category, points off turnovers. The Crimson Tide was able to turn Vanderbilt over 16 times which resulted in a points-off-turnover margin of 27-6, which helped lead to 27 fast break points.
Tuesday’s game was just what Alabama needed to get back on track, as they continue to stay undefeated in SEC play. Next up for Alabama will be an away game at LSU, Saturday, February 4 as Alabama will look for their 20th win of the season.
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