Alabama Basketball Moves to 10-0 in SEC Play

By WVUA 23 Sports Reporter Tatumn Vaught

After their first loss in ten games against non-conference opponent Oklahoma, Alabama Basketball secured a home win against the LSU Tigers on Wednesday night in Coleman Coliseum.

This win was a result of second-chance points, bench players stepping up, and successful rebounding for the Tide. Bama’s bench outscored LSU’s back-ups 34-7, with Juwan Gary, Keon Ellis, and Jahvon Quinerly all ending with ten or more points. They also got 52-points in the paint, a season-high for the Tide.

Alabama finished the game 6-24 from three, which was uncommon for the record-breaking three-point shooting team, but excelling at other parts of the game allowed them to still pull out an 18-point win over the Tigers. Nate Oats explained that the team has struggled with shooting in non-conference games this season, which is going to have to change in order to be competitive in March.

“I think it was a quality win, obviously we didn’t play well offensively as far as shooting the ball, had a few too many turnovers, but, you know, we’ve got to find ways to win when we’re not hitting 23 threes,” Oats said. “LSU came out and guarded us a lot better than they did the first time…we anticipated them playing us a lot better, and they did.”

Although LSU won the tip-off and made a quick bucket, the Tide fired back fast as John Petty slammed a dunk for their first score of the game to make a clear statement that the Tigers were not going to have an easy night. At the first media timeout, it was clear that Oats had the teamwork on their defensive game and rebounding in practice since their loss against Oklahoma. Juwan Gary and Alex Reese were standout players on defense which forced LSU to finish with only 26 points in the paint, while Bama had 52.

After Alabama went 0-3 from three, Jahvon Quinerly came off the bench hot and made the Tide’s first three of the night. Bama’s next possession, Ellis followed it up with a three that led to a 6-0 run for the Tide. With 6:54 left in the first half and a media timeout called, Alabama was up 28-18 on LSU but the momentum changed when Alex Reese ran off the court and headed to the locker room with minutes left in the half. Reese played heavy defense on Trendon Watford, therefore this was a pivotal moment for the Tide’s defensive game plan.

After evaluation, it seemed as if he got poked in the eye, but wasn’t severely injured. Bama remained up 36-30 at halftime with Jaden Shackelford leading in points for the Tide with ten while Cameron Thomas led for LSU with 13. Although the Tide was up by six at half, they were shooting 2-13 from three. This was uncharted territory for Bama, since the last time they played LSU they broke their own SEC three-point record with 23 threes made. Their wins have stemmed from scoring a lot this season. Petty and Shackelford making baskets, therefore the Tide knew that if they were going to run away with this game they were going to have to start making shots or finding other ways to succeed on the court.

In the post-game press conference, Oats shared details of the locker room half-time speech to the team.

“I just said the first four minutes are gonna be huge,” Oats said. “We’ve just got to find other ways to win the game. We’ve got to get on the boards, we’ve got to play better on defense, we’ve got to get out in transition and off our stops, so I think the guys did that and were pretty locked in after halftime.”

The second half of the ball-game Quinerly stepped it up and scored four quick points when he came in the game, as well as a steal and a few rebounds which set the tone for the second half. Gary also made a big play with a steal and followed it up with a lay-up to put Bama up by 13.

Bama went on an 18-4 run even without Jones in the ball-game or making their three-pointers.

Alabama won the game 78-60 against the Tigers to go 10-0 in SEC play this season.

“The bench was huge for us today, you know we’ve got guys that stay ready when their number is called,” Shackelford said. “The way they play is just a testament to how hard they work and just being ready at all times and that was huge for us tonight.”

Bama finished the game with 17 second-chance points, which was a huge accomplishment considering LSU is one of the better rebounding teams in the league. The Tide outrebounded the Tigers by 16, totaling 51 rebounds. Jones was actually the top rebounder of the game with eight, despite him being in serious foul trouble the entire second half. Thomas was the biggest threat of the game to Alabama, since Darius Days was injured, but they limited him to eight points in the second half of his 22-total in the game.

“Big win, creating some separation between us and the rest of the league, but Saturday’s going to be huge,” Oats said.

Alabama travels to Missouri on Saturday to play No. 18 Mizzou in hopes to extend their undefeated conference season.