Alabama Basketball Rolls Past Texas: 3 Takeaways

Alabama basketball was all gas, no brakes in its’ dominant win over Texas on the road in a trap game.

Alabama basketball moved to 10-1 in the SEC with the 103-80 win over Texas on Tuesday night. This was the seventh time the team had scored 100 points, the most in the country.

Alabama had 17 turnovers on the night with 17 assists.

Alabama’s Grant Nelson won the hard hat.

The Tide had five scorers in double-digit scoring nights.

The Tide had four blocks, with Clifford Omoruyi with three, and dominated the Longhorns on the glass 41-25.

“This is a game where I wish we could shoot like this all the time. We spend a lot of time in the gym, but sometimes you get some open looks and knock them down,” said Alabama head coach Nate Oats.

Takeaway #1: Tre Johnson carries Longhorns

Freshman phenom and future lottery pick Tre Johnson was on fire to start the game with 14 points in the first half and could not miss, and had finished the game with an efficient 24 points on 9-17 shooting from the floor and was one of the lone bright spots for the Longhorns on the night.

Jayson Kent also added 19 points for the Longhorns, who tried to help Johnson out in the scoring department by shooting 2-4 from three.

Texas’ Arthur Kaluma left the game in the first 11 minutes with a knee injury. He was the second-leading scorer on the team and had been a good inside-outside scorer. 

Takeaway #2: Jarin Stevenson’s breakout game

Jarin Stevenson’s career-high heading into the game was 19 points, and now a new career-high in an Alabama uniform in scoring 22 points in what was a much-needed big game for the Sophomore on 7-8 shooting in 20 minutes of game time.

Stevenson was guarding Johnson for much of the night on the defensive end and had four rebounds and one block on the game. 

Stevenson, who was 0-17 from behind the arc to start the season, has turned things around and is now a 27.% three-point shooter.

“I’ve been working, preparing, working on my footwork and stuff like that. I feel like that really helped me have a night like this,” said Stevenson.

Takeaway #3: Three-point barrage and consistency from the free throw line

Alabama, which had struggled to find consistency from deep for much of the season, was en fuego all night, hitting 17-29 from deep, where seven guys on the team had at least one made three.

Mouhamed Dioubate, who rarely has attempted any threes this season, went 3-3 from deep.

Labaron Philon, who had hit the Freshman wall and was struggling, shot 3-5 from downtown and had 15 points. 

Aden Holloway was also 3-6 from three and continues to shoot 50-plus percent from three in conference play.

Alabama was sharp from the free-throw line all night, not letting the crowd noise affect the team, which went 18-20. Mark Sears led the way with a perfect 6-6 from the charity stripe. 

Next up for Alabama basketball (21-3, 10-1) vs. Auburn (22-2, 10-1) – Feb. 15 at 4 p.m. EST

Next up for Texas basketball (14-9, 3-7): vs. Kentucky (17-7, 6-5) – Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. EST