ALABAMA HOOPS: Green leads Tide to win over Michigan

ORLANDO, Fla. — JaMychal Green scored a late tiebreaking basket and then made the lead hold up.

Green scored 20 points, including a go-ahead dunk with 5 seconds to play, and Alabama beat No. 15 Michigan, 68-66, in the Old Spice Classic on Sunday night.

Green also blocked and sent a last-second layup attempt by Darius Morris into the stands.

“It feels good,” Green said. “I was at the right place at the right time.”

Charvez Davis added 12 points for Alabama (4-2), which won two of three games in the tournament.

“I’m really proud of our guys,” Alabama coach Anthony Grant said. “We had some adversity that hit us early. We overcame some things and I think it was a great learning experience for our team.”

Manny Haris had 26 points and 10 rebounds for Michigan (3-2), which was coming off a 79-65 loss to Marquette on
Friday. The Wolverines had an 83-76 overtime win over Creighton in their tournament opener Thursday.

“It’s still early, but it did let us know that we’ve got a ways to go and that we probably wasn’t the Top-15 team in the country,” said Michigan forward DeShawn Sims, who had 16 points and six rebounds.

Michigan coach John Beilein second-guessed his own call for the Wolverines’ last offensive play.

“We still got to the rim, but if Manny gets to the rim something else may happen,” Beilein said. “If I had to do it over again, I’d make sure Manny got the ball somehow or used another time out.”

Alabama went up 61-57 on Mikhail Torrance’s 3-pointer with 4 minutes left. A free throw by Justin Knox tied it at 66 with 49.6 remaining.

After Stu Douglass made a long jumper, Harris then scored on the fastbreak to give Michigan a 66-65 lead.

“We just came across another good team,” Harris said. “We’ve got to find a way to close out the game and get a win.”

Harris had 16 points, helping Michigan take a 34-29 lead at halftime. He scored 20 or more points in all three tournament games.

“I don’t think the timing of our offense was real good,” Beilein said. “They did a great job of holding us down.”

Green made two short baskets to put Alabama up 51-50 with 7½ minutes left. The Crimson Tide took a 56-55 lead on Knox’s 3-point play with 6:08 remaining.

Laval Lucas-Perry made a 3 and Anthony Wright had a layup to give Michigan a 48-40 advantage midway through second half.

Harris hit a 3 and added a free throw as Michigan went ahead 9-2 three minutes into the game. The Wolverines used a 10-0 run, featuring 6 points by Harris, to go up 28-15 with 6:34 left in the first half.

Davis had 12 first-half points, coming on four 3s. The last one, along with a rebound basket from Green, cut the Crimson Tide deficit to 32-29 with 34 seconds to go.

The Wolverines scored 14 points off 12 Alabama turnovers during the opening 20 minutes.