Alabama Basketball: Tide lives to fight another day in SEC Tourney

Alabama basketball reached down deep when it was most needed Thursday night, mounting a second-half comeback to beat Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament.

Alabama basketball won ugly Thursday night in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. But when a team prevails in a ‘win-or-go-home’ situation, style points do not matter. The final score was 62-57 for the Crimson Tide.

Not that Alabama basketball fans did not have plenty to cheer about in the win. Tevin Mack’s 21 points were huge, especially the nine first-half points when his teammates struggled to score. Donta Hall was a monster on the boards, pulling down 15 rebounds. Riley Norris scored only two points on cold shooting but he got nine boards and handed out five assists. Galin Smith added 11 points and seven rebounds. Kira Lewis Jr. had 13 points, three assists and four steals.

The stat sheet was minimal for Dazon Ingram, John Petty and Herbert Jones but they made three game-changing plays. For Dazon, it was really two plays. Alabama basketball had no time outs left as Riley Norris looked to inbound late in the game. All he had was a bullet pass that Dazon first surely snagged and then had to immediately control his momentum so to not step or fall out of bounds. It was no small feat. After a quick foul, Dazon calmly sank two free throws that clinched the game.

Petty made one shot in the game in only two attempts. The made FG was an offensive rebound, one-hand stuff that was an essential two points. Herbert Jones took two points away from Ole Miss with one of the most spectacular blocks of the season. And Herbert did it on hustle, just seconds after making a bad turnover on the opposite end of the court.

It took everything recounted in the previous three paragraphs, and more for the Crimson Tide to win. It took a team win because as has so often been the case, the Tide started both halves flat. The Tide went down 14 points twice in the first half. Early in the second-half Ole Miss led by 16. Ten first-half turnovers was a major problem. The Tide finished with 16 turnovers.

Shooting only 50 percent from the foul line and 29.4 percent outside the arc will not win many games. But having a 20 rebound advantage will and surrendering only six offensive rebounds to an opponent is also a big boost.

Avery Johnson deserves some credit too. His substitution patterns made sense, even while playing 10 guys. Leaving Tevin Mack on the bench at the start may have been just what was needed to ignite him.

Cecil Hurt asked Avery about the decision to start Galin Smith, next to Donta Hall,

"We’d been starting four potential 3-point shooters, trying to score in the 70’s and 80’s, and it hadn’t worked out for us so we decided to get back to some old-style physical Alabama basketball."

Mark that down as another right move by Avery. He will need more right moves as Alabama basketball takes on Kentucky Friday night. Some more “old-style physical” play sounds like a good plan against the Cats.

Was the win over Ole Miss enough for a NCAA bid? Probably not, but three Bubble teams lost Thursday and played themselves out of a bid. A win over Kentucky would certainly get the job done.