TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Prior to Saturday night, Alabama had been blowing by every Southeastern Conference opponent standing in its way. And yes, we’re talking about basketball, mind you.
The Crimson Tide had won each of their last three games by at least 20 points and had vaulted to a 7-0 start in SEC play en route to earning the No. 18 spot in the AP Top 25.
Mississippi State coach Ben Howland knew the scoring capacity Alabama’s potent lineup had, calling the Crimson Tide the “best team in our league” in his media session Friday.
Nevertheless, after coming off an embarrassing 18-point defeat to in-state rival Ole Miss on Tuesday, the Bulldogs pushed the Crimson Tide for 40 minutes Saturday at Coleman Coliseum, staying within three points with just more than 30 seconds remaining in the contest. A hot shooting start, a second straight strong outing from D.J. Stewart and a return to respect on the boards a game after Howland called his team’s blockouts against Ole Miss “despicable” gave the visitors life.
But in the end, it didn’t matter.
Alabama (13-3, 8-0 SEC) used a bevy of 3-pointers and forced 16 MSU turnovers to stay undefeated in SEC play, knocking off the Bulldogs (9-7, 4-4) on Saturday 81-73.
“I thought our guys really played hard and really played tough,” Howland said. “We battled and went after every 50-50 ball with all our might. I think there were a lot of positives today even though we lost the game.”
The Crimson Tide are rolling, reaching an eight-game SEC win streak for the first time since the 1986-87 season. Alabama’s win notched the eighth straight win for whoever the home team is in the series and stretched a MSU road losing streak against AP Top 25 teams to 12 in a row.
MSU only had a chance to tie the game late because of a steal from freshman defensive standout Cameron Matthews, who picked off an inbounds pass and later cleaned up an offensive board to cut his team’s deficit to three points with about 45 seconds left. But MSU forward Tolu Smith found himself out of position defensively, leading to an easy look from beyond the arc from Alabama standout John Petty Jr., who drilled a dagger to MSU’s upset hopes as the clock reached 30 seconds.
Matthews played 32 minutes despite not being in the starting lineup, replacing Jalen Johnson, who only played four minutes Saturday. Johnson’s absence from the lineup was a coach’s decision, Howland said.
“They way they play, where they really put you out on an island because they have so much spacing because everyone is such a good shooter,” Howland said. “It’s really hard for him to stay in front of those athletes and not break down. The No. 1 thing you try to do is stay in front of the basketball. Cameron defensively gave us a much better chance of staying in front of the basketball.”
The Bulldogs partly only hung around in the first place because of the efforts of Stewart, who was one of two MSU players in double figures. The redshirt sophomore scored a game-high 27 points, which is his career-high in SEC play, on a 9-of-21 shooting effort.
“We came out with a lot of energy and a lot of fight until the end,” Stewart said. “We were playing with toughness; everyone was trying to win.”
The other MSU player reaching double digits was Iverson Molinar with 19 points, but the sophomore point guard was 5 of 19 from the field.
“Iverson had a tough shooting night, but a lot of the shots he missed were good shots,” Howland said. “I thought only one or two of them were rushed.”
Alabama was much more balanced, with five players reaching double-digit point totals: Herbert Jones (17 points, seven assists), Joshua Primo (16 points), Petty (12 points), Jaden Shackleford (12 points) and Alex Reese (11 points). The Crimson Tide converted 14 of 34 3-pointers.
“I said today I thought Herbert Jones was the player of the year in our league, and he showed it today,” Howland said.
Alabama led Mississippi State 40-35 at halftime, which miraculously was the first time the Crimson Tide haven’t had a double-digit halftime lead since Jan. 9 against Auburn.
MSU shot 53.3 percent in the first half but only converted 35.5 percent of its baskets after halftime.
Alabama started the second half red hot, making 6 of its first 8 shots in the half, and led MSU by as many as 11 points.
MSU is back in action at 6 p.m. Tuesday in a road matchup with Tennessee.
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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