Tough Alabama basketball team made it five straight wins over LSU

For Alabama Basketball a must-win was sweet Wednesday night. Making it even sweeter was it being a fifth straight win over LSU. For good reason, Nate Oats does not like LSU coach, Will Wade. Many Crimson Tide fans agree. Two Januarys ago, Alabama lost to LSU in Baton Rouge. It has not lost to the Bengal Tigers since. Win five came from a 70-67 victory in Coleman Coliseum on Wednesday night.

After dropping its last three SEC games, the Crimson Tide had to win. Earlier in the week, Nate Oats pledged any player giving less than maximum effort would watch from the Crimson Tide bench. Oats and his players delivered the intensity and the toughness needed to beat a talented LSU team.

It is true LSU was down two key players. Balancing that deficit was the loss of Juwan Gary after just seven minutes of action. Gary took a clean, but powerful elbow to the face and could not return.

Will Wade also helped the Tide giving Jaden Shackelford an opportunity for two free points. Shack nailed them and was 9-for-11 from the foul line for the game. Shackelford led the Tide in scoring with 26 points. Jahvon Quinerly came off the bench to score 17 points. Keon Ellis scored 12 points, including 5-for-5 from the line and two to ice the game with 5.2 seconds left. Ellis also led the way on the boards with eight as the Tide fought its way to a 44-36 rebound advantage. Ellis, Noah Gurley and Darius Miles were the Tide’s leading rebounders. Ellis and Gurley combined for eight offensive rebounds helping the Tide win that stat, 19-9 over LSU.

Alabama Basketball 3-Point Shooting

The Crimson Tide overcame second-half shooting of 0-for-15 outside the arc. Speaking of the long-ball drought, Nate Oats said,

"I thought they were good looks. A few of them were probably too far off the line. I’m never going to tell a shooter not to take a shot. We’re going to keep shooting it, I don’t think we’ll go 0-for-15 in a half again."

Elaborating on the win, Oats added,

"I thought tonight, if you look, we had 19 o-boards, they only had 9. We won the rebounding battle by eight. I thought our guys played hard."

Playing hard was the key. The Tide battled throughout the contest. Jaden Shackelford was outstanding, but it was a team victory. Just one example is Noah Gurley. Gurley had a tough night offensively, shooting 2-for-5, going 2-for-8 at the line, and committing five turnovers. He not only never quit, on multiple occasions, he followed an offensive miscue with a sprint to the defensive end to make a big play. He finished with seven rebounds and two blocks, to go along with his six points.

Next up for the Tide is Missouri at home, followed by Georgia on the road. Then comes a tough streak of Baylor, at Auburn and Kentucky.