Alabama basketball ties SEC record with 103-88 win over Ole Miss

The Alabama men’s basketball team is now 20-8 (12-3 SEC) on the season after beating Ole Miss 103-88 in Oxford on Wednesday. That means that Crimson Tide now have back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since 2012-13, which just goes to show how incredible Nate Oats has been since taking over the program.

How It Happened

Despite securing a 15-point road victory, Wednesday night didn’t include Alabama’s best first half showing of the season. In fact, the Crimson Tide got down by as many as 14 points (37-23) with a little over five minutes to go. However, UA proceeded to go on an 11-0 run to close that gap to 37-34 before eventually going into halftime down three points (42-39).

The second half was pretty much all Alabama though. After finishing the last five minutes of the first half strong, the team outscored Ole Miss 18-7 through the first five minutes of the second half to take a 57-49 lead. Sure, the Rebels were able to close that gap and create a back-and-forth situation over the next 7-8 minutes, but then UA went on a scoring tear to secure yet another double-digit SEC win.

Not only that, but scoring 103 points gives Oats and company their ninth 100-point game this season. Three of those have come over the last five games with Alabama still finding a way to put up 98 and 95 in the other two. This is one of the most prolific scoring offenses that we’ve seen in program history, and Wednesday night’s result happened despite UA scoring just 15 points through the first 11 minutes of the game.

The nine 100-point games ties the SEC record, which has been held by Kentucky since the 1995-96 season.

Players of the Game

It’s really difficult to choose only one or two Players of the Game for this one. Guys such as Rylan Griffen, Davin Cosby Jr. (5-of-10 from three-point range) and even Nick Pringle deserve some recognition, but I’ve got to go with the veteran guard tandem of Mark Sears and Aaron Estrada. I know, I know… same story, different.

Sears managed to score a team-leading 26 points though, giving him his 18th game of 20 or more points. According to the Alabama men’s basketball Twitter account, that’s the most by a UA player since the 1992-93 season when James “Hollywood” Robinson did it. Plus, he added five rebounds, four assists and three steals in 40 minutes of action. The Muscle Shoals native remains one of the most underrated players in college basketball.

The most impressive performance might’ve come Estrada though. His 18 points were the second-most on the team, but more importantly, he added a game-leading 10 rebounds and 10 assists to give him his first triple-double in an Alabama uniform. Plus, he had a game-high four steals, which was more than the entire Ole Miss team (3). What a night for the Hofstra transfer.

Key Stats

One of the top stories of this game was the turnover differential. Despite the game being in Oxford, Alabama only had eight while Ole Miss almost doubled that with 14. At one point late in the game, UA had only turned it over four times to the Rebels’ 12. That’s the type of ball security you want from your team if you’re going to go on the road and secure an SEC win over a good opponent.

A huge part of that turnover differential came down to steals. Alabama totaled eight of them as a team (with seven of the eight coming from Estrada and Sears) while Ole Miss only had three. That development helped the Crimson Tide get a slight edge in points off turnovers (19 to 15).

What’s Next

Alabama has a difficult two-game stretch coming up. On Saturday, the Crimson Tide will welcome No. 4 ranked Tennessee to Coleman Coliseum for a top-15 matchup. The first time these two teams played, the Vols were able to secure a 20-point victory over Alabama in Knoxville. Tipoff for that matchup is set for 7 p.m. CT (8 ET), and it will air on ESPN. Then, UA will travel to Gainesville to take on a No. 24-ranked Florida team next Tuesday.

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