COLUMBIA, S.C.- A game that had signs of a disastrous loss early, quickly turned into a win due to the heroic efforts of Brandon Miller.

Wednesday’s game started off extremely rough with the team continuously shooting themselves in the foot with turnovers, bad shots and then just simply missing a multitude of free throws. But Brandon Miller was still able to carry the tide to an overtime victory while putting up 41 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two blocks including a monster dunk over two Gamecocks’.

Alabama in the first half could not get anything going, while South Carolina was knocking down all kinds of circus shots including a half court heave at the buzzer to close out the first. But as time went on, they were able to pull closer and eventually able to tie the game to force overtime late in the second half. In the extra period, Brandon stepped up and scored 6 of the 10 points, including the final blow with 0.8 seconds remaining to give The Crimson Tide the victory.

The Gamecocks had three players killing Alabama’s defense all night, and they were Gregory “GG” Jackson, Meechie Johnson, and Jacobi Wright. All three were able in double figures, but the name that stuck out was Jacobi, and that was due to his ability to score at a high efficiency. Jacobi shot 7-10 from the field for 18 points with a couple of clutch buckets near the end of the game. He killed the Bama defense especially late in the second half.

It was near the complete opposite for The Tide, that is because Bama only had two players score in double figures. Those players were Charles Bediako, who put up ten points and nine rebounds, and then one of the top draft prospects, Brandon Miller, who dominated with a season high 41 points on the night.

Even though the rest of the team had a hard time scoring, a lot of players stepped up in many different ways. Nimari Burnett played 18 minutes off the bench and was one of those players, he was a menace on the defensive side of the ball, causing multiple difficult shots and creating opportunities for turnovers all game which lead to easy fast break points.

After the game Nate Oats was asked if any of the outside noise recently may have been a distraction on the team and he stated

“ It could have been, but I am not the guy to make excuses, we got to play better,” said Oats.  “Some of those other guys didn’t play up to their typical performance, which we need to win games” and then ended with the statement with “Brandon showed up, he played pretty well, we just need everyone to play a lot better Saturday.”

A gritty win like this late in the season when facing adversity while also in front of a hostile crowd will be big late in the season and during the path to a national championship.

No. two ranked Alabama improves to a record of 24-4 with a 14-1 conference play record and will be back home Saturday against Arkansas.

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