The emotion was unmistakable on Tuesday night in Nashville.
On a tough night for the Alabama No. 4 basketball team, a few tears were wiped during the pregame shootaround warm-up. The 78-66 win over Vanderbilt came just three days after former teammate Darius Miles was charged with capital murder in a mentally draining stretch.
The seventh straight Crimson Tide win was never particularly close until the very end. A 23-point lead in Alabama slipped to 68-62 with less than a minute to go before the Tide broke off the foul line one last time.
The Tuscaloosa tragedy still towered over this game.
“I didn’t necessarily see a lot of emotion before the game, but I did see some guys break down after the game,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said via Zoom after the game. “I think they bottled some stuff. You know, we had a job to do. We had to go to the game, we came to the game, we did the business and then it’s almost as if we’re relieved that the game is over and we breathe a sigh of relief.”
Crimson Tide players were unavailable for comment after the game.
Alabama (16-2, 6-0 SEC) scored a game-high 30 from star freshman Brandon Miller in a homecoming game for the Nashville-area product. The forward late added his 10th rebound for a double-double, on a night he made 10 of his 16 shots.
Alabama players huddle before an NCAA college basketball game against Vanderbilt Tuesday, January 17, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee. Darius Miles, from Alabama, was removed from the team and charged with murder along with another man after fatally shooting near campus Sunday. (AP Photo/John Amis) AP
Despite being just hours from home, the quirky Memorial High School on Vanderbilt’s campus had a strong crimson presence. The crowd was in party mode when Miller’s 3 made it 53-30 with 12:44 left, but Vanderbilt’s icy shooting was thawed for a while. Commodore Tyrin Lawrence scored 17 of his 20 goals after half-time, but the Commodores got no closer than six in the final moments.
It wasn’t enough to end Alabama’s streak of keeping seven straight opponents under 70 points.
“I think we’ve shown mental toughness in the past,” Oats said. “We won at Houston, the No. 1 team in the country, after losing 15 at halftime. We won in Arkansas, one of the toughest places to play. They were picked by everyone to be in the top two or three in the league. So we took to the streets and we’ve won in the past. We had a bit different circumstances – very different circumstances here – it’s still an away win. I just think we have a mentally strong group.”
Vanderbilt fell to 9-9, 2-3 in the SEC with the loss four days after beating No. 15 Arkansas on the same floor.
Alabama came out quickly and sprinted to a 13-3 lead as the hosts missed 12 of their first 13 shots. The Tide worked inside as Vanderbilt played without 7-footer top scorer and rim guard Liam Robbins. Without the shot-blocking leader at rock bottom, Alabama outplayed the Commodores 20-8 in the paint and 40-26 in the game before halftime.
Miller scored five of the front nine and 12 of the 36 by halftime when he played with an advantage. Twice in the first half, he said something to Commodore bench after firing shots to the rim when three of Alabama’s first six baskets came on dunks.
Vanderbilt fired back as the tide shifted focus to the perimeter. After taking its first two outside shots, Alabama missed its next eight as the Commodores went 22-21 to a 3-pointer from Malik Dia.
In the 10-0 run in Alabama that followed, Vanderbilt went cold again while making only 2 of 12 shots. With a half-time lead of 36:26, the Commodores only shot 25.6% of the field.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.