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Men's Basketball
at Pitt (Exhibition)
2:00 p.m.
Providence College Athletics
Saturday, December 21
Tuscaloosa, Ala.
3:00 p.m.
Providence College
61
at
69
Alabama
Men's Hoops Falls To No. 2 Alabama, 69-61
12/21/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec 21, 2002
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - It's not often the second-ranked team in the country is compared to "The Bad News Bears."
Yet, Alabama coach Mark Gottfried did just that after the Crimson Tide made another escape in beating Providence 69-61 on Saturday.
"Walter Matthau, that's me," Gottfried said, referring to the gruff actor who coached the bad Little League team.
Not exactly, but Alabama definitely isn't winning pretty.
Erwin Dudley and Mo Williams each scored 19 points and the Tide (8-0) overcame a late 3-point assault from Romuald Augustin and went 7-of-8 from the free throw line over the final 1:34.
Alabama could move into the No. 1 spot in the AP poll for the first time ever on Monday, as top-ranked Arizona lost 66-65 to LSU on Saturday night.
The Friars (4-3) trailed 64-59 with 1:13 left after Augustin hit two 3-pointers in a nine-second span, the second after Marcus Douthit intercepted an inbounds across midcourt. Providence didn't score again until Augustin's scoop shot with 18 seconds left.
"We put the rush on them," Friars coach Tim Welsh said. "They were letting us hang around. All we needed was to make a couple of shots and we could get back in the game. The trouble is we made them too late."
Antoine Pettway hit two free throws with 26 seconds left and Williams and Earnest Shelton combined to make three of four after that.
Alabama led by just three points in the final two minutes before pulling away from Bowling Green last weekend.
Dudley bounced back from his worst game of the season, collecting 14 rebounds. He had just five points on 1-of-6 shooting against Bowling Green.
Williams had eight rebounds, six assists and three steals.
Ryan Gomes led Providence with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Augustin added 16 points, 13 in the second half. He scored Providence's final 11 points and was 4-of-8 from 3-point range.
The Tide, which began a 20-0 run late in the first half, built a 53-37 lead on Pettway's two free throws with 10:28 left.
Both teams struggled shooting, with Alabama hitting 36.2 percent and Providence 35.4 percent. The Tide struggled against the zone defense at times, but Dudley still got his touches.
"They were rotating real quick and all Erwin had to do was put a body on the guy," Williams said. "Basically all we had to do was move the ball around. We did a good job of that all day."
Alabama made 20 of 25 free throws while Providence attempted just eight, making six.
Welsh, who drew a technical foul protesting a no-call inside in the first half, gave a tongue-in-cheek assessment of the free throw disparity.
"We never got into a game this physical and didn't get to the (free throw) bonus," he said. "They played great, aggressive defense without fouling.
"We couldn't get the ball inside at all. We didn't match their toughness."
The Tide couldn't get many open shots against the Friars' zone defense in the first 16 minutes, missing seven straight shots as Providence rode a 9-0 run to a 27-21 lead with 5:12 left.
The Friars wouldn't score again until nearly three minutes into the second half as the Tide picked up the tempo for a 53-37 lead with 10:28 left. Dudley started the 14-point barrage with a basket and free throw with 4:04 left.
Kenny Walker then scored on an alley oop from Williams, Terrence Meade hit a 3-pointer and Williams scooped up a loose ball and dunked in a two-minute span.
Welsh had seen enough, getting the technical for protesting the lack of a foul call on Walker's third block of the half.
Williams made both free throws and the Friars missed their final eight shots and committed five turnovers during the scoreless stretch.
Alabama also scored the first six points of the second half. Gottfried didn't have much nice to say about the Tide's offense, but he praised the defense.
"There's been a couple of games this year where it's been the difference," he said. "We haven't beaten people with our offense, we've beaten them with the defense."
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