ALABAMA HOOPS: Tennessee pounds Tide

TAMPA, Fla. — Tennessee’s J.P. Prince plucked a steal at halfcourt and ran the requisite distance before tallying the first 2 points of Friday’s second-round SEC Tournament game with a one-handed dunk.

Unfortunately for Alabama, it was just the beginning.

The rest of the evening’s proceedings resembled a slam-dunk contest, and the Crimson Tide were largely watching with the rest of the sparse crowd in the St. Pete Times Forum.

Tennessee easily handled Alabama, 86-62, on Friday, which likely ends the Tide’s tumultuous season.

Tennessee will take on Auburn in today’s semifinal, which is set to tip at 2:30 p.m. Alabama, meanwhile, will wait to hear from the selection committee of the NIT and set out to find a permanent head coach.

“It’s been a very unique experience,” said interim coach Philip Pearson, who took over in January when Mark Gottfried was forced to resign. “It will probably take a few days for this all to sink in. I’m very proud of the way our players have performed.”

Pearson said Thursday he had not been directly told whether or not he would be considered for the head coaching position. All indications, though, point toward UA’s administration looking elsewhere.

“I haven’t had a chance to think about it,” Pearson said. “From a basketball standpoint, for me, it’s been a lot of fun. Certainly everything we tried, it didn’t work, but I think there are things that have.”

Friday’s loss did not reflect the progress Alabama made down the stretch, winning five of its last six heading into the SEC quarterfinals.

Tennessee was the faster team and attacked the hoop from start to finish — kind of like what Alabama did to Vanderbilt one day earlier.

The Vols tallied 60 points in the paint and 20 on the fast break, a good chunk of which coming on a number of acrobatic, thunderous dunks.

“I liked the basketball that we put on the floor,” Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said. “We played hard. We played unselfishly.”

Tyler Smith and Wayne Chism led the Volunteers with 22 and 15 points, respectively. Prince was the only other Volunteer in double figures with 14.

One night after combining for 45 points, Alonzo Gee and Mikhail Torrance totaled a collective 25.

Tennessee’s big, first-half lead turned into a rout early in the second half after a 17-0 run, and it allowed Pearl to clear his bench. By that time, Alabama needed about seven consecutive banked-in 3’s from Anthony Brock to make the game competitive.

Brock’s 30-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer last Sunday in Knoxville sent the Tide to an improbable road win and gave the Tide momentum heading into this week’s tournament.

“They came out and threw another punch or two,” Pearson said. “We just weren’t able to recover from that point.

“Awfully proud of our guys … they’ve hung in there in a difficult circumstance, trying situation.”

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