Alabama Basketball used a strong 2nd half effort from Mark Sears to move to 3-0 in SEC play in a back-and-forth game in Starkville Saturday night. With the win, Alabama joins Auburn as the only two teams who remain undefeated in SEC play. It is refreshing watching this team starting to gel and figuring out how to win close games, especially against a bigger more physical team. The tough out-of-conference schedule seems to be paying dividends, as this is the type of game this team would have lost late earlier this season. They responded well to getting down early and withstanding a late run from the Bulldogs.
Latrell Wrightsell nearly tripled his scoring average Saturday night dropping 19 points and was a key reason why Alabama was able to go into halftime with a 2-point lead. Rylan Griffen also showed up in key moments dropping a clutch 17 in a game where both Estrada and Nelson struggled on the offensive end. There is still much room for improvement from this team, but they finally seem to be molded into the team Coach Oats wants. The Tide will return to the friendly confines of Coleman Coliseum Tuesday night looking to improve to 4-0 on the young SEC season against a struggling Missouri team. It is a must-win game before the conference season picks up with huge games against Tennessee and Auburn.