The Alabama Crimson Tide continued its perfect record at home with a 75-61 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs. With the win Wednesday night, the Tide improves to 14-7 overall and 6-1 in the Southeastern Conference. Alabama also improves to 12-0 at home.
“This gives us a lot of confidence to know that we can come out and give our best and get outcomes like this by playing hard defense and executing on offense,” said sophomore Tony Mitchell.
The Tide’s defense played a big part in the first half by keeping MSU out of the paint. While Alabama had 19 points in the paint, MSU had only 6. Another contribution the defense made was forcing 12 turnovers, which the offense turned into 11 points.
“I thought the first half, our defense was very, very good,” said head coach Anthony Grant. “I thought the guys did a very good job of understanding what we had to take away from them in terms of the way they run their offense. The guys did a great job of being aggressive defensively.”
Only 80 seconds into the half, MSU’s Renardo Sidney left the game with two personal fouls and did not return in the half. Then with four minutes left, MSU lost more of its height near the basket as Kodi Augustus got his third personal foul and was taken out for the half. The Bulldogs still fought to cut Alabama’s lead and managed to hold off Tide’s offense.
When Alabama didn’t get a field goal for almost nine minutes, the Tide relied on free throws to keep its lead. Still, MSU came within six before JaMychal Green got a field goal to keep Alabama’s offense alive.
“We hit a little lull there in the first half from an offensive standpoint, but our guys handled that well, and I thought closed the half on a positive note,” Grant said. “Great finish by Charvez [Davis] there at the end to give us the momentum going into the second half.”
Going into halftime, Alabama was up 35-23. As time expired, Davis hit a 3-pointer, his third of the night, to give the Tide a 12-point advantage.
Alabama came out strong in the second half, getting off to a quick 45-27 lead with just more than 16 minutes left. Two quick threes by the Tide’s offense gave Alabama momentum that the team carried through the rest of the half. Alabama was able to keep a steady 10-plus-point lead throughout the half.
“There were some lulls in the game there […], and you could see the momentum go in their [MSU’s] favor,” Grant said. “But I thought just a couple of plays, the energy was in the building, and it kind of got our guys refocused.”
Though MSU came into the game scoring more than 73 points in its previous four games, the Tide’s defense was able to hold the Bulldogs to only 61 points. In Alabama’s last 10 games, only three opponents, including MSU, have been able to score more than 60 points.
In the Tide’s first matchup against the Bulldogs in January, Alabama won in Starkville, Miss., 75-57. With Wednesday’s SEC victory and a 6-1 conference record, the Tide has its best conference start since 2004-2005, keeping its No. 1 spot in the SEC West by 1.5 games.
Next up for the Tide is a road trip to Knoxville, Tenn. Alabama will play the Tennessee Volunteers in the last game of Bruce Pearl’s SEC suspension. Tipoff is at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
