TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama men”s basketball team continued its undefeated status at home this season with a 70-46 victory against LSU in front of a sell-out crowd at Coleman Coliseum on Saturday night.
Junior forward JaMychal Green led the way for Alabama (13-7, 5-1 SEC) with a 20-point, seven-rebound performance. Sophomore forward Tony Mitchell added 12 points and four rebounds, while freshman guard Trevor Releford scored 10 points and handed out four assists.
Sophomore guard Andrew Steele had seven points in his first start of the season.
“I thought our defense really set the tone of the game,” Alabama coach Anthony Grant said. “In both halves our guys put together 40 minutes of the way we have to defend.”
Alabama maintained its dominance inside the paint, outscoring LSU 43-16. Its defense held LSU 18 points below its season average (64.5 points per game). The win was Alabama”s eighth in its past nine games.
“I”m proud of our guys,” Grant said. “They remained patient and understood our defense was carrying us early in the game, and we knew that if we continued to defend that opportunities would come open at the other end.”
Mitchell added another electrifying dunk to his résumé to give the Crimson Tide a 4-2 lead. After three lead changes, Alabama maintained the lead for the rest of the half after a layup by Releford at the 14-minute, 13-second mark. The Crimson Tide”s largest lead of the first half came with just under a minute left, 29-20.
Leading 29-22 at halftime, LSU trimmed its deficit to three thanks to a jumper by Matt Derenbecker at the 17:27 mark. Following that, the Crimson Tide were relentless defensively and ignited a 24-4 run that lasted the next 10 minutes. Steele scored Alabama”s first 3-pointer in the run. Alabama led by as many as 27 when freshman forward Jason Carter gave the Tide a 70-43 lead with 26 seconds to play.
Alabama has won eight of its past 11 meetings against LSU (10-11, 2-4 SEC). The 5-1 start is its first in SEC play since the 2004-05 season.
Seventy points has been a critical number on offense and defense under Grant. The team is 19-5 when it scores 70 or more points.
Alabama will play host to Mississippi State at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.