Brandon Miller loosens up, scores 19 points while still battling groin injury

It took 53 minutes and 15 seconds, but Alabama’s All-American freshman finally scored his first basket of the NCAA tournament Saturday night.

Brandon Miller’s layup with 6:45 left on the clock in the first half of a 73-51 second-round win over Maryland was his first field goal of the tournament and part of a 19-point effort that helped the Tide advance to the Sweet 16 next week.

Miller went 40 minutes without scoring a point in Thursday’s opening-round win, shooting 0-for-5 as while being hobbled by a groin injury. Miller said with a smile Friday that he would always say he is 100-percent healthy, but it was clear he was not.

Coach Nate Oats expressed optimism Miller would look more like himself Saturday, and the star forward did.

“I feel like I just came out with a lot of energy, the energy me and my teammates needed to get a win over a great team,” he said after shooting 5-of-17 against Maryland, including 7-of-8 on free throws, while grabbing seven rebounds and making one block.

Miller made two three-pointers in a span of four minutes early in the second half, the second one opening a double-digit lead over Maryland after the Tide held a narrow five-point halftime edge. Miller finished 2-of-6 on three-pointers, with Jahvon Quinerly (4-of-6) responsible for all of the other makes for Alabama, which finished 6-of-21 (28.6 percent) from deep.

After playing only 19 minutes against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and telling Oats in the second half his groin was hurting, Miller came close to doubling that by playing 34 minutes Saturday night.

“I didn’t know how many minutes he would be able to play,” Oats said. “It seemed like the longer he went, the more loose he got, the better he was. I saw him kind of wince early. He didn’t have the same pop. Looking at his stats, he was 3-of-11 from two. A lot of those were at the rim. I thought his finishing had been really good over the whole conference play and everything.”

Miller was asked after the game how he felt entering it, and stuck to his mantra.

“100 percent,” he said with a chuckle.

Oats smiled at that and later gave the truth.

“He definitely wasn’t 100 percent,” Oats said. “He’s gonna tell you he’s 100 percent. He’s a tough kid that’s going to play through some stuff and not let people on to how much he’s hurt. But him and [trainer] Clarke [Holter] spent a lot of time together over the past 48 hours.

“Give him a lot of credit: he was able to go. There was no question ever about whether he was able to go or not.”

Alabama does not play again until Friday night in Louisville, when it meets No. 5 seed San Diego State in the Sweet 16.

“We’ll rest him how we need to rest him until they feel like he’s ready to practice,” Oats said. “If we don’t have him for a few practices, that’s fine. We got to get his groin as close to 100 percent as we can by Friday.”

Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.

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