Alabama Basketball: Crimson Tide with big win over No. 21 MSU

Alabama basketball continued its solid performance against ranked teams taking down Mississippi State 83-79, Tuesday night in Tuscaloosa.

Alabama basketball was in dire need of a win on Tuesday night. The Alabama Crimson Tide had lost four of its last six games. The schedule after Tuesday is three road games in the next four, so beating the Bulldogs was of immense importance.

Another big plus from beating Mississippi State is notching up another Quad 1 win. The Bulldogs went into the game at 15-4, No. 22 in the AP Poll and No. 21 in the Coaches Poll. In Avery Johnson’s four Alabama basketball seasons his teams are 14-10 against ranked teams. That performance is good if not spectacular. Narrow it down to last season and this season and the record against ranked teams is 9-3. That is tremendous. Note – these stats include regular season and SEC Tournament games only.

Tuesday night’s game was a matchup of two nearly equally talented teams. The Crimson Tide jumped out to a 41-29 halftime lead. Credit Coach Johnson with a solid offensive plan to attack the basket off the dribble. Donta Hall and Tevin Mack were 9-for-14 attacking the paint in the first half. Overall, the Crimson Tide had a 30-14, points in the paint advantage in the first half.

Mississippi State head coach, Ben Howland made halftime adjustments. Those adjustments and foul trouble by Hall led to Mack and Hall only getting two second-half shots from the field. The Bulldogs outscored the Tide 50-42 in the second half but it was not enough for a comeback.

Both teams were poor from the free throw line, but with the attacking the basket strategy, the Tide gained 14 more free throw attempts. The Tide finished 61 percent at the line, compared to Mississippi State at 55 percent. The teams were close to even in turnovers, with the Tide committing two less at 11 turnovers for the game. Mississippi State had a big offensive rebound advantage at 19-12 but overall the boards were close with the Bulldogs, plus four from 43 rebounds.

Mississippi State was a poor 16 percent on 3–for-19 three-point shooting. The Tide was worse, making only one of 15 shots from outside the arc. The leading scorers for Alabama basketball were Donta Hall with 19, John Petty with 13 and Riley Norris with 11 points. Tevin Mack led the Tide with eight rebounds.

Freshman Kira Lewis Jr. added nine points but also made five turnovers. Kira had a pivotal block on a  three-point attempt by Tyson Carter in the last 30 seconds. Had Carter hit the trey, it would have tied the game.

Next up for the Alabama Crimson Tide is a Saturday trip to Auburn. The Tigers are no longer ranked after three losses to Kentucky, South Carolina and Mississippi State.