Alabama Basketball had a big second half to rout the Ole Miss Rebels 93-74 to win its third straight game.
Nate Oats remained unbeaten in the state of Mississippi and is 4-0 in the Sandy and John Black Pavilion at Ole Miss.
“Credit to our defense for keeping us in the game early,” said Oats.
The Tide will have to go the rest of the season without Charles Bediako, as a local judge denied the request for an injunction to play the rest of the season.
Alabama scored 11 points in the first 10 minutes and still finished with nearly 100 points.
This is the first time in all conference play that the Crimson Tide has won three straight SEC games.
Amari Allen won the hard hat.
AJ Storr led all scorers with 27 points.
The Tide shot 24-26 from the free-throw line and also had 20 assists total, with Aden Holloway and Allen with 6 apiece.
Tale of two halves
The Tide got good looks all first half, but they just weren’t going in the hoop. It took the team to fall behind 20-11, but they turned it around at halftime and went into the locker room with a 2-point lead, and they never looked back.
“We didn’t get into any kind of flow in the first 8-12 on the offensive end,” said Oats.
The team has struggled to put together a complete 40 all season long, and this game was no different: a complete switch flipped, and it seemed every shot went down.
12-22 from three in just the second half alone, in what was a 61-point half, to rout the Rebels, and on the defensive end, forced 5 turnovers.
Latrell Wrightsell’s big game
After only playing 11 minutes Saturday and being a game-time decision before the game, Latrell Wrightsell Jr. was on fire off the bench, especially in the second half, with 21 points and tied the career-high in 3’s made, the same as in the Missouri game from Jan. 27, with 7-13 from deep, 18 in the second half.
“He got rewarded in a big way,” said Oats after Wrightsell had volunteered to come out of the starting lineup.
When healthy, Wrightsell only makes the ceiling of the team go up, and can be a team nobody wants to run into in March.
Aiden Sherrell and co. hold it down without Bediako
Aiden Sherrell, who has made a big Sophomore jump in production, continued that into the game with another 15 points on the game with a perfect 6-6 from the charity stripe. Sherrell grabbed 6 rebounds and had 2 blocks to anchor down low on the defensive end.
“We tried to do a better job of resting him when we could,” said Oats on Sherrell’s production.
Amari Allen continued to have a great Freshman campaign and stacked the stat sheet with 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists to do a bit of everything, and could have had a triple-double watch, but was in foul trouble for much of the game.
Next for Ole Miss (11-13): vs. Ole Miss (Sat., Feb. 17 at 6:30 p.m. EST)
Next for Alabama basketball (17-7): vs. South Carolina (Sat., Feb. 14 at 8:30 p.m. EST)