Alabama Basketball: Cold Shooting Dooms Tide in Starkville
By Mike Parham
The Alabama basketball team couldn’t overcome a cold shooting night and fell on the road to Mississippi State 67-63
Despite shooting 24-for-30 from the free-throw line, careless turnovers and cold shooting haunted the Alabama basketball team. Alabama shot 36.7 percent from the field and 13.6 percent from the three-point line.
Collin Sexton again led all Tide scorers with 18-points but that wasn’t enough to stop the Bulldogs.
For much of the first-half, both teams went back and forth without either gaining a real advantage. Alabama’s biggest lead was only five in the first-half.
Luckily for the Tide, Mississippi State (18-6) also turned the ball over a lot and shot poorly from the field. Early on, both teams had to rely on free throws and jump shooting because of the great rim protection.
Alabama (15-9) finished the game with five blocks and Mississippi State had seven.
The Tide, who rely on passing the ball and three-point shooting, went 0-for-7 in three-pointers and had zero assists in the first half. They didn’t record their first made three-pointer until 16:09 remained in the second-half.
A scary moment occurred for Alabama when center Donta Hall went down hard on his surgically repaired wrist. The play occurred when Hall attempted a dunk and was fouled by an MSU player.
Hall went to the bench, without attempting free-throws, in noticeable pain. However, he would return to start the second-half for the Tide.
With cold shooting, both teams had only one player in double figures the entire first-half, Collin Sexton and Nick Weatherspoon.
MSU opened the second-half on a 9-to-2 run en-route to their largest lead of the game, which was nine. Daniel Giddens provided the Tide with huge minutes until he picked up his fourth foul with 12:16 left.
Alabama used a near five-minute field-goal drought to surge ahead of MSU by four with 8:19 remaining. However, the Bulldogs stormed ahead following a timeout to erase that deficit and tie the game.
MSU took a 55-54 lead with 4:31 remaining and never looked back. The Tide made the game interesting by getting to within three points with eight seconds remaining, but not much was to be expected considering the cold night from deep.
Dazon Ingram Held Scoreless
It seems, as of late, that the Tide can no longer get consistent play from their key role players at the same time. Ingram, a key to the Tide’s success, was held scoreless against MSU.
Ingram only attempted one shot throughout the night and didn’t do much of anything else on the stat sheet. He did account for four turnovers which was probably the reason he was held on the bench during key moments of the game.
In order for Alabama basketball to be successful Ingram must play well. He is a vital player in Alabama’s rotation and often provides scoring when Sexton isn’t doing it.
Next: Alabama Football: NSD Eve- which players roll with the Tide?
Hopefully, Ingram will have a bounce back game when Alabama basketball returns to its home floor. Alabama’s next game is a home game against the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday at 5 PM CST.