Alabama basketball avoided its first SEC three-game losing streak in four years with a big second half against Mississippi State to win 97-82.
With the win, Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans fell to 0-9 against the Tide in his career.
“They give a lot of people struggles each game. They play a style that is hard to prepare for,” said Jans.
Amari Allen won his sixth hard hat of the season with his 4th double-double with 13 points, 13 rebounds, as he continued to impact the game on both ends from the floor.
The Tide showed some urgency throughout the game, not wanting the losing skid to continue.
“When you’re facing adversity, it makes you better,” said head coach Nate Oats.
The Tide on the defensive end held SEC top scorer Josh Hubbard to 23 points on 6-16 shooting. Hubbard still got his, but was limited and unable to take over as he did in last season’s 38-point game against this Tide team.
Aiden Sherrell had a career night offensively with 22 points to be the team’s second leading scorer.
After Tuesday’s game, Alabama Basketball moved to 17th in the NCAA net rankings and is now 3-4 in quadrant 1 games.
32-7 run that changed everything
Offensively, the Tide began the game struggling to find any rhythm, whether it was end-of-shot-clock forced shots or early turnovers. It took until the 8:13 mark when the Tide went down 29-15 for a spark to happen.
“For us to get a road win with the number of bodies we had tonight, just says a lot about who we are, the character our guys have,” said Oats.
The Tide finished the first half on a 21-5 run to grab the lead at the break, and that is where momentum seemed to change. Last time out against Texas, the Tide had similar momentum, but could not take advantage, and this time history did not repeat itself.
The Tide outscored the Bulldogs 61-48 in the second half and finished just below the century mark despite 15 points through 25% of the game.
When the Tide’s scoring run started, so did the domination on the glass. At one point, it was getting outrebounded 20-9, and the script flipped, with the rebounding margin 47-43.
Labaron Philon’s career night
Not only did Labaron Philon get the assignment on Hubbard at times after being challenged by the coaches on that end, but he also answered the bell offensively after the Texas loss with a new career-high of 32 points in efficient fashion on 10-14 shooting from the floor, 3-5 from 3, which had been in a slump from deep as of late.
“We all just needed to talk to each other after the game against Texas, and it opened a lot of things for us to just play together,” said Philon.
Philon’s “Robin” to his Batman, Aden Holloway, had another 15-point game with 3-5 from deep.
Injury bug continues to hit the team
For the first time since Nov. 26, the Tide had the same starting lineup in back-to-back games.
Out of Alabama’s 13 scholarship players, there have been 52 games missed due to injury/sickness, and there are still 14 plus games to go in the season.
Alabama came into the game with only 8 scholarship players, with Keitenn Bristow, Taylor Bol Bowen, and Latrell Wrightsell Jr., who all were ruled out on the SEC injury report before the game.
“Bristow’s got a left-leg injury. I don’t know how long he’ll be out for. Taylor’s got a left-hand injury. Hoping maybe he can get a pad and play Saturday,” said Oats.
After the Oklahoma game on Saturday, the Alabama Basketball team will get a week off between games, and it will be much needed before the last 2 months, and maybe three get into full force.
Next for Mississippi State (10-7): vs. Ole Miss (Sat., Jan. 17 at 8:30 p.m. EST)
Next for Alabama basketball (12-5): at Oklahoma (Sat., Jan. 17 at 1 p.m. EST)