Birthday Chuck: Bediako Stars in No. 1 Alabama’s Quarterfinal Win Over No. 9 Mississippi State

The Crimson Tide’s veteran big man made an emphatic statement against the Bulldogs — on his birthday.

Austin Hannon | Mar 10, 2023

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Alabama Crimson Tide

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — They say birthday wishes come true.

For Alabama forward Charles Bediako, his sure did.

Bediako put up one of his best performances of the season in the top-seeded Crimson Tide’s 72-49 victory over 9-seed Mississippi State on Friday afternoon.

In 24 minutes on his 21st birthday, Bediako finished with 11 points, six rebounds and five blocks. And who was he going against? None other than first team All-SEC forward Tolu Smith.

Smith had 28 points and 12 rebounds in the Bulldogs’ 69-68 overtime victory over Florida on Thursday.

Bediako wasn’t about to let that happen again.

“He’s the anchor of our defense,” forward Noah Gurley said. “It helps when you’ve got big Charles down there. That’s all I’ve got to say. We love him. We think he should’ve won defensive player of the year. He’s a big part of who we are defensively.”

“I just tried to stay out of foul trouble,” Bediako said. “Not bite on shot-fakes. Just stay solid. It was also everybody else. They help me.”

This isn’t the first time Bediako has feasted against perhaps the top big man in the SEC. On Dec. 28 in Starkville, Smith had just five points and six rebounds on a poor 1-for-7 from the field.

Bediako’s good luck charm on Friday? His coaches and teammates sang him “Happy Birthday” at the team breakfast prior to the game.

“Our guys are great,” Oats said. “They gave him a big, huge birthday celebration this morning, sang to him. Five birthday blocks. I thought he controlled the paint pretty well. He won the hardhat for all the blue-collar points.”

“I feel like as a team we're happy for him,” guard Brandon Miller said. “He turned 21. I feel like my vocals were the best out of the group with singing, but not going to get into that [smiling]. No, I think we're all happy for him.”

In prior games this season, Bediako lived on the bench at times due to foul trouble. He spent 16 more minutes on the bench Friday but this time for a different reason — his impact early on effectively ended the game.

“It's great he had a good game on his birthday,” Oats said. “Kind of got on him the first four minutes of the second half. I thought he kind of let Tolu get going. I thought he did a great job in the first half. When he came back in, he had some blocks, kind of sealed the game. I'm not sure what they cut it to, maybe 14, I think, if I remember right. Then we kind of inserted some of those starters back in. Charles had some blocks. Made a couple threes. Opened it back up to 20. Guys all gave Charles a lot of love in the locker room when we gave him the hardhat because it's his birthday. Happy birthday, Chuck.”

A year ago today — on his 20th birthday — Alabama lost to Vanderbilt in the second round of the SEC tournament.

Not this time.

“[My birthday was] much better than last year,” Bediako said.

A happy birthday indeed for the second-year player out of Ontario and IMG Academy.

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