TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Mississippi State men”s basketball team”s road woes continue.
After beating then-No. 24 University of Florida on Saturday at home, MSU thought it had cured the ills of an up-and-down start to league play.
Instead, it reverted to the form that saw it lose by 22 at Georgia and dropped its second-straight Southeastern Conference road game Wednesday night at Alabama.
Alabama (14-7, 6-1) received 23 points from Tony Mitchell and retained its SEC lead with a 75-61 win against MSU.
Alabama earned its first season sweep of MSU since 2005 and handed the Bulldogs their seventh loss by double-digits since Dec. 14.
MSU”s defeat mirrored its loss at Georgia. It endured early foul trouble, struggled to contain the opposing point guard, and shot poorly from the field.
The Bulldogs turned the ball over on their first two possessions and Renardo Sidney picked up two fouls in the first two minutes.
Kodi Augustus earned three first-half fouls, and the Bulldogs had 12 turnovers in the half.
“I thought Kodi was pretty shaky with the ball,” Stansbury said. “I thought we all got shook a little bit when they jumped on us. We didn”t play with the right poise.”
MSU will play three of its next four games on the road and can ill-afford foul trouble up front. Sidney”s fouls have been an issue all season, as he has fouled out of three games and finished with four in three others.
He sat nearly 18 minutes of the first half and finished with 11 points and three rebounds .
Stansbury praised Sidney for having fewer “silly” fouls against Florida and had hoped he”d kick the habit as his conditioning and experience progressed.
Bost, who led MSU with 18 points and seven assists, said Sidney”s early foul trouble was a greater issue than their turnovers.
“Georgia came out and hit us in the mouth harder than they did when we was in a zone,” Bost said. “Sid got two fouls and it hurt us. He”s a go-to player. You got to be able to go inside to have great outside play, and we ain”t have that when he got two fouls.”
Alabama point guard Trevor Releford followed his 17-point performance in Starkville with 16 points, eight assists, and four steals.
“I thought he was very aggressive tonight,” Alabama coach Anthony Grant said of Releford. “We felt if we could get out and run, he would set the tempo for us. As big as what he did offensively was what he did defensively; To guard a guy the caliber of Bost and what he”s capable of doing, he did a very good job running our team.”
Alabama started the second half on a 10-4 run behind 3-pointers from Tony Mitchell and Charvez Davis, forcing Stansbury to call a timeout just three minutes in.
Alabama”s run extended its lead to 45-27, but MSU roared back through Sidney, who scored six points in the first seven minutes of the second half, and 3-pointers from Benock and Bost. The spurt helped MSU cut the lead to 11, and it later made it a nine-point game before the Crimson Tide went up 60-46 with 7 minutes, 27 seconds left to play.
MSU got as close as 12 before falling for the third time in four games.
Though MSU could point to a variety of reasons for losing Wednesday, guard Ravern Johnson took to social network site Twitter to express his feelings.
“Starting to see why people Transfer you can play the minutes but not getting your talents shown because u watching someone else wit the ball the whole game,” Johnson wrote. “Shooters need to move not watch why other coaches get that do not make sense to me.”
Johnson played 40 minutes and made 2 of 7 shots from the field. He was 1 of 4 from behind the 3-point line but made 5 of 6 free throws. His production has dipped since mid-December, when he was leading MSU with more than 20 points per game.
MSU will travel to LSU on Saturday, while Alabama will play Saturday at Tennessee.
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