The resurgent Alabama Crimson Tide won their third game in a row on Wednesday night, traveling to Oxford and beating the Ole Miss Rebels 93-74. The win was Bama’s third straight after an embarrassing 100-77 loss at Florida on February 4th. Alabama improved to 17-7 overall and 7-4 in SEC play. Ole Miss fell to 11-13 overall and 3-8 in league play. The Tide was playing with out Charles Bediako for the first time in six games after the big man lost his court case for eligibility. The Tide started sluggishly but poured it on over the last 27 minutes for the big win.
Coach Nate Oats sent out a starting five of Labaron Philon, Aden Holloway, Amari Allen, London Jemison, and Aiden Sherrell. Latrell Wrightsell was available after leaving the Auburn game Saturday with a knee injury. Thankfully for the Tide the grad student was able to answer the bell.
The Tide got off to a slow start, and fell behind 5-0 with 19:10 left in the half. Allen hit from long range to tie the game 5-5 with 17:40 remaining. With 10:47 on the clock Bama trailed 18-11 and was 3-16 from the field. With 13:10 left the score was 20-13 Ole Miss. Not being able to score from the field, the Tide counted on the free throw line to stay in the game. Sherrell and Philon both made two freebies followed by a Wrightsell three t0 cut the margin to 22-20 with 4:10 left in the period. Two more free throws by Philon and two by Holloway were followed by another Allen three pointer to tie the score at 27 at the 2:14 mark. Philon followed with a make from long range and the Tide was able to take a 32-30 lead into the locker room .
In the first half Alabama shot 8-31 for 26% including 5-23 for 22% from deep. Fortunately the Tide made 11-12 at the charity stripe. Bama won the battle of the boards with 24, including seven offensively. Alabama dished out five assists, blocked three shots, stole three balls, and turned it 0ver four times. Philon led the way with nine points, followed by Allen with six points, two rebounds, and 0ne assist. Sherrell scored four points with three rebounds and two blocked shots.
Ole Miss shot 12-33 for 36% including 4-10 from three and made 0nly 2-6 free tries. The Rebels had 17 rebounds, nine assists, one block, two steals, and committed three turnovers. AJ Storr led OM with 13 points off the bench.
The same starters came out for the second half, a half in which the Tide blitzed the Rebels with 61 points. Sherrell got things going with a three pointer and two free throws. Oats yanked Philon out of the game after a turnover in favor of Wrightsell. Wrightsell promptly drained a three pointer, followed by one from Allen. All of a sudden Alabama was ahead 45-36 and Ole Miss was forced to call a timeout. The Tide went up 13 before the Rebels went on a 6-0 run. Wrightsell found his spot and hit three straight three pointers to push the score to 62-47 with 9:12 left. Ole Miss kept answering t0 stay within shouting distance but never could get close than eight points. Holloway joined the party with a three and a pair of free throws. But the story remained Wrightsell. When all was said and done the grad student had tied his career high with seven made threes on 7-13 shooting.Jahlil Bethea and Taylor Bol Bowen joined the long distance crew late in the game and the Tide had the comfortable 93-74 win. Bama ended up with five players in double figures.
Alabama blistered the nets to the tune of 18-34 for 53% in the second half, including 12-22 for 55% from three and made 13-14 free throws. Oversll Bama shot 26-66 for 39%, 17-45 from three for 38%, and a shine- 24-26 for 93 at the line. The team finished with 44 rebounds, 20 assists, 5 blocks, seven steals, and only six turnovers. Wrightsell scored 21 points and added three rebounds and three assists. Philon notched 18 points with five rebounds, three assists, one steal, and only one turnover. Allen won his usual hard hat award with 13 points, eight rebounds, six assists, three steals, and two blocks. Sherrell scored 15 with six rebounds, two blocks, and a steal. Holloway filled out the quintet of double digit scorers with 12 points and had four rebounds with six assists and no turnovers.
Ole Miss was 17-36 for 47% in the second stanza with 4-12 from deep and made 6-7 free throws. Overall the Rebels shot 42%-29-69, 33% from deep on 8-22 and 62% at the charity stripe, 8-13. OM had 39 rebounds, 19 assists, four blocks, two steals, and eight turnovers. Storr was the leading scorer in the game with 27 points. Eduardo Klafke scored 12 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds.
With the victory the Tide improved to 4-2 on the road in conference play- the team is 3-2 in the SEC at home. Ole Miss is really a bad team, and for the first 13 minutes Bama played down to the competition, scoring only 13 points. However over the last 27 minutes the Tide poured in 80 points, including 61 in the second half. Sherrell was beginning to play an elite level when Bediako joined the team, but seemed to regress while they were playing together. Tonight the big man looked to be returning to the form of six games ago. Wrightsell is showing when he is a least moderately healthy he is an elite shooter. Since the Tennessee game on January 24th, Wrightsell is 23-46 from three point range after beginning the season in abysmally. The key going forward is keeping Sherrell out of foul trouble. With no capable backup big man available the Tide can not afford to be with out Sherrell for long periods of time.
Next up is a home game with South Carolina on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. CT. The game will be on the SEC Network. South Carolina is a cellar dweller in the SEC so this should be a game the Tide takes easily.
