3 takeaways from Alabama basketball’s SEC win over LSU

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It wasn’t always pretty, but Alabama basketball pulled away from LSU late in the second half on Saturday to beat the Tigers 80-73 at Coleman Coliseum. The win moved the Crimson Tide to 17-3 on the season, 6-1 in SEC play.

Aden Holloway led the Tide with 19 points. Cliff Omoruyi led the way in rebounds, with nine.

Alabama travels to Starkville next, facing Mississippi State Wednesday. Before that, here are three takeaways from Saturday’s win.

Tight start

Alabama was favored entering Saturday’s game. However, Nate Oats made clear before the matchup that the Crimson Tide couldn’t take it lightly.

The last time UA did that, things went poorly.

“We’ve done the deal where we’ve overlooked the team a little bit,” Oats said Friday. Ole Miss, I had no idea why we overlooked them, they were undefeated at the time we played them, but I think we did. So, we’re gonna have to see how mature we are, see what sort of effort we bring for the entire 40 minutes.”

In the first half of Saturday’s game, Oats was proven right. Alabama had stretches where it seemed to start pulling ahead, but the Tigers outrebounded the Tide, which never could finish the job.

Some of the issues that have plagued Alabama in its worst moments this season showed up in the first half as well. LSU scored 13 points off turnovers and held a 13-5 offensive rebounding advantage in the first 20 minutes.

The two teams went to the locker rooms tied at 40, far away from the performance the Tide was hoping for.

Where’s Mark?

Alabama point guard Mark Sears wasn’t playing his best basketball in the first half. The Muscle Shoals native was 0-for-5 from the field, and was -1 in his 17 minutes.

With just three second remaining in the half, Oats subbed out Sears. Then, the guard wasn’t seen again, never taking the court in the second half.

It always comes as a surprise when Sears isn’t on the court for a lengthy stretch, given his importance to the Crimson Tide. However, the LSU game was not the first time it’s happened this year.

Against Illinois, Oats said Sears took himself out of the game when a different lineup was seeing better results. Throughout the second half against the Tigers, Sears seemed engaged on the bench, standing at times to support his Crimson Tide teammates, and having what looked to be an emotional conversation with assistant coach Preston Murphy.

“We just played the guys we thought gave us the best chance to win that second half,” Oats said.

Meanwhile, other guards played well, including Chris Youngblood and Aden Holloway.

Grinding it out

Once again, Saturday proved that nothing comes easy in the SEC during the 2024-25 season. Even in a home game where the Crimson Tide clearly had the better roster entering the matchup, LSU kept things close.

However, late in the game, Alabama finally got comfortable. The Crimson Tide got outrebounded in Saturday’s matchup, but wasn’t blown away on the glass, and came out ahead in the category after halftime.

The Tide’s shooting woes continued for another game, and it hit just 40% of its second-half field goals. However, UA was able to do enough to secure the win.

Oats credited the second half defense. After allowing 1.176 points per possession in the second half, Alabama clamped down after the break, holding LSU to .846 PPP in the final 20 minutes.

“We’ve been challenging our team about, defensive intensity in the second half,” Oats said. “Super proud of the way they came out to guard in the second half.”

It wasn’t a highlight performance. But in the SEC this year, a win is a win.

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