No. 4 Alabama took down No. 14 Mississippi State on the road 88-84 on Wednesday night. The win marked the Crimson Tide’s seventh consecutive over the Bulldogs and its third win over a top-15-ranked team.
It was clear that this game was significant for the Bulldogs, as “The Hump” was rocking throughout the game. To add fuel to the fire, it was Mississippi State’s annual “blackout” game, which got the fans going early.
This contributed to some early success for the Bulldogs, which came in the form of a slam dunk by forward Michael Nwoko and a pair of 3-pointers from guard Josh Hubbard, giving Mississippi State an early 8-3 lead in less than two minutes.
Alabama settled things down by converting on tough layups and hitting open 3-pointers. Guard Aden Holloway cut the deficit to 1 with 13:03 remaining in the half with a 4-point play, bringing the score to 17-16 in favor of the Bulldogs.
Guard Chris Youngblood hushed the crowd with a triple to give Alabama a 23-21 lead, part of a 5-0 run with 9:49 left in the half.
“As I play more, the goal is to keep getting better,” Youngblood said. “I’m just feeling better and better game by game.”
An 8-0 run from the Crimson Tide with 5:36 left in the period opened things up for the visitors, giving Alabama a 35-27 lead. During the run, guard Mark Sears scored his first points since the second half of last Tuesday’s contest versus Vanderbilt with a deep 3-pointer.
The Bulldogs responded with a 9-2 run to take a brief lead with 1:08 left. The run was quickly snuffed out by a Youngblood 3-pointer, followed by an and-1 from forward Grant Nelson with just five seconds left in the half, which grew the score to 44-39 going into the locker room.
A tough Nelson layup followed by a 3-pointer from the Bulldogs’ Claudell Harris Jr. set the tone in the first minute out of the break. The teams then traded buckets back and forth until Sears hit a 3-pointer to make the score 54-47 with 16 minutes left in the game.
Mississippi State went on a 7-0 run off a sequence that featured a made 3-pointer and a dunk, and it let them pull within 1 on the scoreboard. The Crimson Tide was unfazed, responding with a Holloway mid-range bucket to make the score 63-60 with 12:23 left.
The Bulldogs regained the lead at 65-64 with 10 minutes left after an and-1 from Hubbard. Sears immediately followed with a 3-pointer to put the Crimson Tide back on top.
Over the next few minutes, the teams traded baskets, and nerves in the building continued to grow as the lead continued to change hands.
A pair of 3-pointers from Youngblood helped to give Alabama an 80-77 lead with 3:57 left in the game; however, Hubbard converted on a 3-point play at the line to tie the game up at 80 and added to his 38-point night.
Nelson then hit a 3-pointer to give the Crimson Tide an 83-80 lead with 2:30 left. Hubbard followed with a layup to cut the lead to 1.
A mid-range jumper from Sears grew the lead to 85-82 with 59 seconds remaining, but it was followed up 10 seconds later by a putback by Mississippi State forward KeShawn Murphy to make the score 85-84 with 48.6 seconds.
Nelson then got fouled on his way to the rim and went to the line to shoot free throws with 24.5 seconds left. With the crowd echoing at his back, he missed both shots.
Mississippi State could not convert on its next possession and ended up fouling Youngblood with 10.9 seconds on the clock. Unlike Nelson, he was able to convert on both shots to give Alabama the win.
Youngblood had himself a breakout game of sorts, leading the Crimson Tide in points with 23. He made 7/10 3-point attempts and pulled down a pair of rebounds.
Head coach Nate Oats commented on Youngblood’s impact, saying, “Hopefully this was Chris’ coming out party,” and “He looked pretty good on both ends of the floor.”
Sears had a solid night after being held scoreless by LSU on Saturday. Against the Bulldogs, he scored 17 points on 3/5 shooting from behind the arc.
“I thought Sears had a really good bounce-back game. He played hard,” Oats said.
Nelson and Holloway both made sizable impacts, scoring 15 and 12 points, respectively. Nelson also pulled down seven rebounds and Holloway had a pair of assists.
The Crimson Tide returns home to take on the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday at 3 p.m. CT. The game will be streamed on ESPN2.