Crimson Red Sports

Tide 33-26 Half.

Hale  10 points
Randolph  7
Obasohan 5
Jacobs  6

Engstrom 4 Rebounds
Cooper   4


 :popcorn2:

What has happened to Hale? He now has 14 points. Releford 9 points & 4 rebounds. Tide 51-46. Xavier has 14 offensive rebounds. 10 minutes to go.


 :popcorn2:

Tide 55-48 after lay-ups by Randolph & Releford.


 :clap:

Jacobs gets 4th foul but Xavier misses front end of 2 & 2. Stainbrook of Xavier gets his 4th foul. He's their best big man and rebounder. Tide in double bonus and shoots 2 on each foul. We re 8/15 in FT's. Tide 57050 with 8 minutes to go.


 :clap:

Xavier is 8-3 with an RPI of 67 & 138 SOS.

Rebounds: Xavier 33  Tide 26

Engstrom 4th foul. Xavier misses FT but then gets a 3 pointer after poor shot by Cooper.

 :wall: :wall: :wall:

Tide 61-58 after 2 Key FT's & tide has ball. 5 minutes to go.

Ball stolen by Xavier then scores on goal tend and foul on Tide. Xavier 64-61. Releford gets 4th foul and is told to shut up by referee.

Xavier 64 Tide 62. We had 12 point lead about 7 minutes ago.


 :wall: :wall: :wall:

3:29 left  Xavier 66-62  Timeout



 :shake:

Is there TV coverage?

No. I'm listening on radio.

I didn't see it on the listings.  Thanks for the updates.

Releford just hit 3 with 16 seconds left. Xavier 73-71. Xavier has hit most of their FT's last 3 minutes, Tide hitting maybe 50%. Xavier hits 2 FT's for 75-71 lead with 5 seconds left. Tide 20/30 on FT's. Xavier came into game hitting 61% of FT's but 20/26 tonight (77%).  Xavier hits 2 more FT's. 77-74.

Xavier 77  tide 74 FINAL

Too late now but the game was on CSS.

Disappointing loss. Nine minute stretch late in the 2nd half without a field goal.

I hope someone else listened to the game to make sure I am not saying something which is not accurate. Folks, even our own announcers were criticizing our play. The lack of player movement, poor rebounding, missed FT's, especially late when we desperately needed them. They even used the term, the poor "management" of the last 15 seconds of the game. That was a not-too-subtle slap at coaching. They may get reprimanded by the AD after some of their comments, just saying. They were just so frustrated with the team's play. We had a 12 point lead in the 2nd half but blew it away.

Huge keys:

They had 16 off. rebounds, we had 8.
They had 63 shots, we had 47 (due to rebounding)
X had 22/28 Ft's, Tide 20/30.
We were excellent at 3 point range with 8/19 but they just had so many more shots than us.
Down the stretch, last 4 minutes, we stunk.

Please respond if you heard the game. Thanks.

 :facepalm:

They beat us down low. Late in the game they just pounded the ball to their big guys. They either make the shot, got fouled or got the rebound. On offense they went to a zone defense and we went cold. I think the effort was there. IMO once Xavier got the lead our guys did not think we could win. Our confidence is shot. This season is slipping away and it is not Christmas yet.

Outstanding observation! The Tide announcers said the same thing about Releford after he missed a FT late in the game. He had lost his confidence and looked beat per them. The season is quickly slipping away and we are just in DECEMBER! I am so disappointed & frustrated.


 :(

A few observations from the game:

Releford is not 100%. His hip is bothering him. He only played 29 minutes. Going into the season he talked of getting in better shape so he could play 38-40 minutes a game. even hurting he is our best player. He had 17 points last night.

Rebounding killed us. We were out rebounded 38-34 but that stat is misleading. Xavier got 17 offensive boards to our 8. That lead to Xavier shooting 63 shots to our 47.

Where was Jimmie Taylor. We were getting killed in the low post. At times Jacobs was our only big guy in the game. Cooper and Randolph are good players but they can not bang with 6-9 true post players. CAG went with Engstrom who got beat often. Jimmie Taylor is young and makes mistakes but he is a rebounded and shot blocker. I think he needed a chance to see if he could slow their post players down late in the game. He only played 8 minutes.

Shannon Hale had his best game. He scored 14 pts in 13 minutes. He was 3-5 from the 3 pt arc.

The zone got us again. We went without a field goal for 9 minutes late in the game.

I have been getting upset with Obasohan missing critical shots with the game on the line. Last night I changed my mind. He and Releford are the only two with enough confidence in them self to take a shot at crunch time.

We are not a bad team. Our record should be much better than it is. We need a big win bad to try and get the ship sailing in the right direction. Our team needs to get their swagger back.

These guys are probably Bama's best option at crunch time because they are the best shooters and they are versatile, they can drive the basket, attempt a 3 or pass the ball.

Why do Cooper and Randolph disappear when the game is on the line? Obasohan shooting a desperate 3 point shot is not a good option.