Alabama’s leading scorer Brandon Miller was limited to a season-low 19 minutes in Thursday’s first round game of the NCAA tournament as he continues to deal with a groin injury, coach Nate Oats said.

Miller did not score any points, shooting 0-for-5 from the field and not making any trips to the free-throw line in a 96-72 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in Birmingham. He played 13 minutes of the first half and the first five-plus minutes of the second half before being whistled for his third foul and going to the bench. He did not return to the game, which by then was 20 points in Alabama’s favor.

Miller suffered the injury during the SEC tournament, Oats first mentioned Monday during his weekly “Hey Coach” radio show while complimenting the freshman on his play in Sunday’s tournament title game win over Texas A&M.

“He was playing with a hurt groin, too,” Oats said Monday. “It kind of showed how tough he was to be able to play through injuries.”

Oats spoke further about Miller’s injury after Thursday’s win.

“He’s got a groin injury that he’s been nursing since Sunday in the SEC tournament,” Oats said. “We’ve been trying to play him limited minutes. We were able to keep him under 20. Hopefully he can do a lot of rehab today and tomorrow and look a lot more like himself on Saturday.”

Alabama, the No. 1 seed in the South region, will meet No. 8 Maryland on Saturday in the second round.

Miller said his injury is “getting better by the day” and he has not been limited in practice.

“I think I’ve been at every day in practice, same time as usual,” he said. “Just really competing to get better.”

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