Alabama Men Finish Third at National Tournament

-

The University of Alabama men’s wheelchair basketball team entered the national tournament as the No. 3 seed and left with a third-place finish.

After opening the tournament with a 55-51 win over No. 6 seed University of Texas at Arlington in the quarterfinals on March 14, the Crimson Tide lost to No. 2 seed University of Wisconsin at Whitewater 74-58 in the semifinals on March 15 before bouncing back with a 64-56 win over No. 5 seed University of Illinois in the third-place game on March 16.

Alabama trailed Texas-Arlington 21-20 at halftime. Its shooting improved from 32.3 percent (10/31) in the first half to 57.7 percent (15/26) in the second half.

Sophomore Tim Houston was the Tide’s leading scorer in the quarterfinal win with 17 points.

Senior Partha Venkatram had a double-double with ten points and 11 rebounds.


Alabama sophomore Tim Houston (24), seen here in the Crimson Tide's 55-51 win over the University of Texas at Arlington in the quarterfinals on March 14, was the team's leading scorer in all three of its tournament games
(photo courtesy of Alabama Adapted Athletics)

That win set up a semifinal showdown with Wisconsin-Whitewater, who had beaten Alabama 77-68 on Feb. 2 in the two teams’ only regular season matchup.

Alabama was held to 25.8 precent shooting in the first half, including 0/5 on three-point attempts. Meanwhile, Wisconsin-Whitewater shot 59.4 percent and led Alabama 44-18 at halftime.

Alabama’s shooting improved to 43.2 percent (16/37) in the second half, but the Crimson Tide were only able to make up ten points of the 26-point halftime deficit.

Houston led the Tide with 25 points.

Venkatram had 14 points and Eric Francis had 11 points.

See also: Crimson Tide Women Win Another National Championship

In the third-place game against Illinois, Alabama shot 51.9 percent (28/54) from the field while holding Illinois to 33.3 percent (21/63).

Houston led the way with a double-double performance of 18 points and 11 rebounds.

Senior Peter Berry had 13 points, and Venkatram had ten points.


The complete results from the national tournament
(photo from the website of Southwest Minnesota State University)


 

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alabama Adapted Athletics Capped Off 2022-2023 Season With a National Championship Sweep

-
Image
The University of Alabama Adapted Athletics program's three teams (men's and women's wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis) competed in the 2022-23 season. All three won national championships. Banners on the lightposts outside of Stran-Hardin Arena display the number of national championships (not yet updated to reflect the most recent national championships) that Alabama Adapted Athletics teams have won  (photo by Elliott Lapin) Women's wheelchair basketball cruises to fourth consecutive national championship After finishing the 2022-2023 regular season with an 16-0 record in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Intercollegiate Division (and a 23-2 overall record, the Alabama women's wheelchair basketball team was the top seed for the NWBA college national championship tournament, which was held at Stran-Hardin Arena on the University of Alabama campus. The Tide cruised to a 78-34 victory over the University of Arizona in the semifinal game on Mar...
Read more

Tyler McKay Returns to Alabama to Take Over Wheelchair Tennis Program

-
Image
The start of the 2023-2024 season saw the return of Tyler McKay. McKay had been a volunteer coach for the University of Alabama wheelchair tennis team for two seasons and then an assistant coach for the next two seasons. After a couple years away from the university, he returned to the Alabama Adapted Athletics program as the head coach for the wheelchair tennis team. McKay takes over for Evan Enquist, who spent eight seasons as the head coach of Alabama’s wheelchair tennis team and left at the end of the 2022-2023 season to become the United States Tennis Association’s National Manager for Wheelchair Tennis. Tyler McKay returns to the Alabama Adapted Athletics program to become the wheelchair tennis head coach. (photo courtesy of Tyler McKay) The search process to find a new head coach followed the standard University of Alabama process. First a search committee was assembled. Then the job was posted on several websites including Indeed and the USTA’s website. Some applicants w...
Read more

Zach Smith Takes Over as the New Operations Coordinator for Alabama Adapted Athletics

-
Image
 Zach Smith is the new Operations Coordinator for the Alabama Adapted Athletics program having started the job in mid-November. Despite having no prior experience with adapted athletics, both Smith and program director Brent Hardin agree that he is the ideal person to take on the job duties. Smith had worked most recently as an operations intern for the Birmingham Barons Minor League Baseball organization and before that had been a lead marketing intern for University of Alabama at Birmingham athletics while finishing up his degree in Hospitality, Sport, and Tourism Management from Troy University. Zach Smith, the new Director of Operations Coordinator for Alabama Adapted Athletics, had worked most recently as an Operations Intern for the Birmingham Barons of Minor League Baseball. “One of the things we tried to really focus on is demonstrated competency. We look for applicants that have been able to prove through their previous positions, internships or responsibilities that ...
Read more