Alabama pursues its 12th victory in 13 games when it battles Mississippi State on Wednesday night in Southeastern Conference play at Starkville, Miss.
The No. 4 Crimson Tide (17-3, 6-1 SEC) are a half-game behind top-ranked Auburn in the conference race after reeling off consecutive victories over then-No. 8 Kentucky, Vanderbilt and LSU.
No. 14 Mississippi State (16-4, 4-3) has lost three of its last five games with the setbacks all coming against ranked foes: then-No. 6 Kentucky, No. 1 Auburn and then-No. 6 Tennessee.
The Bulldogs notched a 65-60 road victory in overtime versus South Carolina on Saturday. Alabama beat visiting LSU 80-73 on Saturday.
The Crimson Tide prevailed over the Tigers despite leading scorer Mark Sears (18.1 points per game) going scoreless for the second time this season. He missed all five of his shots in 17 first-half minutes and was benched for the second half.
“This is all I’m gonna say about playing time stuff,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said after the victory. “We played the guys in the second half that we thought gave us the best chance to win the game, and we won the game.
“Our defense was significantly better in the second half than in the first half, and we haven’t done that much this year.”
Aden Holloway scored 19 points off the bench to follow up a 22-point effort against Vanderbilt four days earlier. Holloway has reached double digits in eight of the past nine games and is averaging 15.4 points during the stretch. Overall, he is averaging 11.8 points.
Fifth-year transfer Chris Youngblood made his first start of the season and had 13 points and five rebounds in 30 minutes.
Youngblood arrived with 118 starts under his belt from three seasons at Kennesaw State and one at South Florida. He missed the first five-plus weeks while recovering from offseason ankle injury and had been utilized in a reserve role up until Saturday.
“It felt good,” said Youngblood, who is averaging 8.5 points. “At first, my family thought I was gonna be mad about not starting this year, but this team is wonderful.”
Mississippi State blew a 14-point lead with under nine minutes left in regulation before picking up the overtime win over South Carolina.
The Bulldogs were outrebounded 45-30, committed 17 turnovers and made just 6 of 26 3-point shots (23.1 percent) while escaping with the victory.
“It wasn’t pretty basketball,” Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said. “For the people that like the aesthetically pleasing game, this wasn’t fun. It was hard on the eyes, if you will, for both teams, for that matter.”
Riley Kugel scored 15 points off the bench as one of five Bulldogs to score in double digits. He is averaging 16 points over the past three games.
Josh Hubbard leads Mississippi State with a 16.3 average and has scored in double figures in 19 of 20 games. Hubbard had 12 points against South Carolina but is struggling with his shooting.
Hubbard was 4 of 15 against the Gamecocks and is shooting 25.9 percent (21 of 81) over the past six games.
Despite the shortcomings against South Carolina, the Bulldogs cherished the win because it came on the road in the country’s toughest conference this season.
“Listen, everyone says that it’s difficult to win on the road,” Jans said. “I don’t care what anyone’s record is. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. These athletes and these coaches, it means so much to so many. And that’s all we talked about heading in that this was going to be a hard game.”
The Crimson Tide have won the past six matchups and nine of the last 10.
–Field Level Media
