Alabama Basketball: SEC win streak intact as Tide sweeps LSU

Alabama Basketball: Crimson Tide stays perfect in the SEC despite a cold night outside the arc.

The two most productive Alabama basketball weapons were neutralized Wednesday night against LSU. The Crimson Tide’s leader, Herbert Jones played just 16 minutes. Jones picked up his fourth foul at the 17:04 mark of the second half. Nate Oats was forced to sit his star, in hopes of a late-game return. Jones never came back because he was not needed, as his teammates shouldered an extra load, and cruised to an easy 78-60 victory.

The dominating win happened despite another productive Crimson Tide weapon, the three-ball, being unproductive. The Alabama Crimson Tide made just 2-of-13 first-half threes for 15.4 percent. Tide shooters regained some form in the second-half for 36.4 percent from outside the arc.

Making 25 percent of threes (for the game) can be a problem for the Crimson Tide. It was not Wednesday night because Nate Oats’ team did so many other things so well. The Crimson Tide out-rebounded LSU, 51-35. Jones, even on short duty, led the team with eight boards. John Petty Jr., Juwan Gary and Keon Ellis had seven rebounds each. The Crimson Tide defense held LSU to 31 percent shooting, including 24 percent on three attempts.

The Alabama basketball team hammered LSU inside the paint with 52 points compared to LSU’s 26. The Tide had 17 second-chance points to four for LSU. Nate Oats bench scored 34 points, compared to seven for LSU. Jaden Shackelford led the Tide in scoring with 19 points. Next were Alex Reese with 13 points and Juwan Gary with 12. Jahvon Quinerly and Keon Ellis added 10 points each.

Commenting after the game, Nate Oats said,

"It’s nice we were able to win this without playing Herb a ton of minutes and Rojas was limited. It would be nice to get them closer to 100% before the Missouri game.(On Juwan Gary) He did a great job on Trendon, finished with a career-high 12 points. Just really happy for him.We’re missing Bruner, but with the way Reese has been playing these last few games, we’re not missing him as much.Thought the guys responded well to the (OU) loss. We’ve got a big one, got two days here to prepare for Missouri."

The Missouri Tigers are an experienced team, capable of playing with anybody. At 12-3 overall, Missouri is the SEC’s second-best team. The Tigers have won five of their last six games, including a nine-point victory over Tennessee in Knoxville. Cuonzo Martin is a no-nonsense coach whose teams play tough. It should be a great game on Saturday.

With the win over LSU, the Crimson Tide is 15-4. Through the games of Feb. 2, the Crimson Tide was No. 9 in the important, NCAA NET ranking.