Ken Rogers
01/31 at 10:05 PM

TUSCALOOSA — Finally, a smile from the Alabama basketball program.

After a coaching change and the extension of a league road losing streak that is nearing two years, Georgia provided the perfect balm for Alabama’s worst week in more than a decade.

Alonzo Gee scored 20 points, Senario Hillman added 19 and freshman JaMychal Green had 14 points and 13 rebounds in the Crimson Tide’s 75-70 victory over the Bulldogs Saturday night at Coleman Coliseum.

It was interim coach Philip Pearson’s first victory since Mark Gottfried’s forced resignation last Monday.

And it came against Georgia interim coach Pete Herrmann, who Thursday replaced Dennis Felton. The Bulldogs lost their eighth straight game and fell to 9-12 overall and 0-6 in the Southeastern Conference.

“I just asked our guys to play hard, play smart and play together,” Pearson said. “I’ve been around this game a long time and if you’ll do those three things together, you’ll end up having a pretty good year.”

Alabama (13-8, 3-4 SEC) shot 46.6 percent from the field on 27-for-58 shooting. Several of those were easy baskets in transition after defensive stops.

“We caused 20 turnovers and got a little offense off that,” Pearson said.

Herrmann also noted the turnovers.

“I felt that we got good effort and felt we had good unselfishness,” Herrmann said. “But we still had the 20 turnovers. You score 70 points and have 20 turnovers. If you cut that in half you probably win the game.”

Instead, Green played very well inside and Gee and Hillman, who had slumped recently, both returned to lead the Alabama offense.

Gee and Hillman combined to shoot 13-of-19 from the field, 6-of-7 from 3-point range.

Herrmann, who said he recruited Hillman since he was a ninth-grader, saw his first shots go down and shared a quick word with the Alabama guard.

“I said, ‘What are you doing? Stop making these points, will you?” the Georgia coach said. “He laughed at that.”

Georgia’s plan was to keep Hillman from driving to the basket and make him shoot jumpers.

“He made them tonight,” Herrmann said. “Alonzo, too. You have to play the drive and he hit the shots. That’s on me. I told our guys, Alonzo always wants to get closer.”

“It’s always good when shots are falling,” said Gee, who had his fourth 20-point game of the season. “We got a lot of good looks because our big man was playing well.”

Green was 7-for-14 from the field with a career-high 13 rebounds — seven on the offensive glass. He credited Gee and Hillman.

“It got us going,” Green said. “It loosened up the zone so I could get open. I was glad they knocked down shots.”

Green said the team needed something good to happen.

“It was very important because we’re going through a lot right now,” the freshman said. “I think it’s a great win. ... Coach Pearson knows what he’s doing. It’s a great win for him, also.”

While Alabama had three stars, Pearson noted, “Everybody contributed.”

The Tide had 10 players play nine or more minutes. All of them scored except Yamene Coleman, who somehow had a dunk ricochet back out of the basket, discounting his jam.

“It’s been a tough week but I feel like they’ve hung in there awfully, awfully well,” Pearson said of his players.

Alabama was 4-for-8 from long range in the first half, a considerable improvement from their season average of 29 percent.

The Crimson Tide emerged from a first half that featured four lead changes and four ties with a 40-35 lead.

Gee made a steal and fed Mikhail Torrance in transition for a 50-40 lead with 16:30 left in the game.

Georgia’s Trey Thompkins, who led all scorers with 22 points, hit back-to-back 3-pointers that cut the lead to 52-48. The Tide went on a 9-1 run, capped when Green put back a missed shot by Gee for a 61-49 edge.

Georgia never got closer than 5 points.