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ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Rod Grizzard almost single-handedly propelled eighth-ranked Alabama into the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament. Grizzard scored 27 of his season-high 33 points in the first half as Alabama cruised to a 91-72 victory over Tennessee. The SEC regular-season champion, Alabama (25-6, 13-4 SEC West) faces surprising South Carolina in the semifinals. Grizzard made 6-of-9 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes as the Crimson Tide took a commanding 49-29 lead. Tennessee (15-16, 8-10 SEC East) never threatened thereafter as Alabama improved to 7-0 this season against SEC East Division foes. A junior guard, Grizzard scored all of Alabama's points during a 20-5 run in the first half. He hit five straight shots from beyond the arc and capped the outburst by converting a layup with 4:24 remaining as the Crimson Tide opened a 42-22 cushion. "Basically, I was trying to find spots to get open," Grizzard said. "For me, making any shot out there is great. I dont know probably the distance on the shots I took, but I heard they were pretty far. But at that part of the time, we really needed that, and I was fortunate to be in that position to make it." Alabama also reeled off a 20-4 second-half run to open its largest lead of the contest, 71-40. Grizzard finished just two rebounds shy of his 10th career double-double. The Birmingham native shot 13-of-20 from the field, including 6-of-10 from the arc, in 34 minutes. He also recorded the seventh best performance in SEC tournament play, tying Dale Ellis 33-point performance in 1983 for Tennessee against Louisiana State. "Rod was sensational in the first half," Crimson Tide coach Mark Gottfried said. "He got into that zone. It was a good game to get us started in the tournament." Vincent Yarbrough had 23 points and 12 rebounds, and Marcus Haislip added 17 for Tennessee, which lost for the sixth time in their last nine games. "It was a great game by Rod Grizzard, we missed a few shots early," Yarbrough said. "Rod Grizzard is flammable. Any time he hits his first couple of shots, you know he is going to have a good day. He really knocked the shots down and had a great game." Despite being one of 30 finalists for the John R. Wooden Award as the men's college basketball Player of the Year, Grizzard had shown no signs of producing an offensive explosion. He had combined to score 28 points in his previous three games. Grizzard's 33 points represent the most scored by an Alabama player this season. "We got hit by an unbelievable performance in the first couple of minutes by Grizzard," Volunteers coach Buzz Peterson said. "We knew going into this game that if we got beat, we would get beat from the outside. We wanted to make sure that we eliminated any easy shots by (Erwin) Dudley. If Grizzard is hot like that, they can beat a lot of teams in this country." The Crimson Tide dominated the Volunteers despite receiving just six points on 2-of-10 shooting from SEC Player of the Year Dudley, who entered Friday averaging 15.7 points per contest. "People doubted us. We came out here, played defense and got turnovers," Dudley said. "Its fun to watch Rod make shots like that. He broke out of his shell." Dudley collected 25 points and seven rebounds in Alabama's win over Tennessee on February 16. The Crimson Tide punished the Volunteers' mistakes, converting 14 turnovers into 27 points. Kenny Walker and Terrance Meade contributed 13 points apiece for Alabama. Walker, a junior center, shot 4-for-5 as the Crimson Tide outscored the Volunteers in the paint, 38-31. Meade also pulled down a career-high 10 rebounds. Freshman Earnest Shelton added 10 points off the bench as Alabama's reserves had a 24-18 edge over the Volunteers' bench members. |
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