Alabama basketball closed out an extremely successful week on Saturday night in Coleman Coliseum with a 109-88 drumming of the LSU Tigers to get to 6-1 in conference play.
After an embarrassing effort in Knoxville last weekend, Alabama was able to earn two huge wins this week against Auburn on Wednesday and LSU on Saturday.
Once again, the home crowd in Tuscaloosa was electric with back to back sellouts, but Alabama got off to a slow start against the Bayou Bengals, leading just 50-44 at the halftime break.
DAVIN COSBY 👌🏼
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— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) January 28, 2024
Trelly hit that three from Birmingham!
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— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) January 28, 2024
After a back-and-forth start to the second half, the Tide eventually stepped on the gas with an 8-0 run that put them ahead for good en route to a 59-point second half.
🔥🔥🔥 @GriffenRylan
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— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) January 28, 2024
MO-DITA!!
📺: @espn#RollTide | #BlueCollarBasketball pic.twitter.com/0vynj0u4gB
— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) January 28, 2024
Five players finished in double figures scoring wise for Alabama, including Mark Sears with 21 points after just six in the first half. Among the other players in double figures were Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (19 points), Aaron Estrada (18 points), Grant Nelson (12 points), and Rylan Griffen (12 points).
Estrada responded to a rough performance against Auburn in which he had zero points and was on the bench for much of the second half with 6 rebounds and 7 assists to go along with his 18 points in 31 minutes of play.
Alabama has now set a program record with its sixth 100-point performance of the season. It was also the second amount of points Alabama has scored against an SEC team in the Nate Oats era (115 against Georgia in 2021).
Perhaps even more impressive from Saturday night was the Tide at the free throw line, converting nearly 90% with 25 of 28 converted.
After the game, head coach Nate Oats said that while he was happy with the win and how the team is coming along, the team won’t be able to compete for a conference championship if the defense does not improve.
“I do think this is a team that can win it and we’re going after it as hard as we can. But if we don’t fix our defense, it’s going to be hard to win it.”
Alabama has temporarily taken a half game lead over Tennessee for first place in the conference with the Vols playing just once this week and sitting at 5-1.
The Tide will next take the court on the road this Wednesday evening against the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP
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