The Alabama men’s basketball team secured a 117-115 double-overtime victory against Arkansas on Wednesday night at Coleman Coliseum. The Crimson Tide, ranked No. 25 in the AP poll, overcame a 14-point deficit to win their fifth consecutive game.
Alabama improved its record to 19-7 overall and 9-4 in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Labaron Philon Jr. led the team with a career-high 35 points, while Aiden Sherrell added a personal best of 26 points and collected 13 rebounds. Amari Allen contributed 19 points, and Aden Holloway scored 15.
Arkansas, also holding a 19-7 record and matching Alabama’s conference mark, was led by Darius Acuff Jr., who scored a career-high 49 points along with five rebounds and five assists.
Following the game, Alabama head coach Nate Oats commented: “That was a fun game, I’m sure the fans enjoyed that. I give Arkansas a ton of credit, they are down men and to play a 50-minute game with basically seven players. At the end of the game they played a couple guys that never really played because of foul trouble. Acuff played 50 minutes and scored 49 points. Obviously, our defense wasn’t very good on him, especially in the first half. We gotta do a better job, they had a better game plan than us, even though we got better as the game went on. Acuff and Meleek Thomas are pretty skilled players, the two of them went 12-18 from three.
I give our guys a lot of credit, too. Aiden Sherrell hasn’t really been able to play over 30 minutes, and he played almost 40 tonight and ended up with 26 points and 13 rebounds. He played hard and won our hard hat. Philon made some big plays late, particularly on offense. Houston didn’t score in regulation and hit a big three in each of the overtime periods.
Our guys fought hard, we got down 14 early and ended up being down 10 at the half. In the second half we got the lead down to seven, and then it felt like a minute later the lead was back at 14. To be down 14 in both halves and fight your way back to force overtime. We need to do better, but its great to learn from a win.”
Alabama’s point total marked its second highest ever in school history; only once before has it scored more—123 points against USF in December of 1971. The comeback matched their largest this season after overcoming another similar deficit against Mississippi State earlier this year.
Two Alabama players—Amari Allen and Aiden Sherrell—recorded double-doubles for the first time since January last year. The team shot over ten three-pointers for the ninth time in ten games this season.
During Wednesday’s contest:
– Arkansas took an early lead before Alabama responded with several scoring runs.
– The Razorbacks built their advantage up to fourteen points multiple times.
– Darius Acuff Jr.’s three-pointer forced overtime near regulation’s end.
– Both teams traded leads through two overtime periods until Houston Mallette hit what proved to be Alabama’s decisive three-pointer late in double OT.
– Philon scored most of his points after halftime as Alabama outscored Arkansas by ten during that stretch.
Next for Alabama is an away matchup against LSU at Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Saturday evening; tipoff is scheduled for 5:00 p.m., broadcast on SEC Network.
