Alabama Men’s Basketball Takes Care of Business Against LSU

BATON ROUGE, La. - The Alabama Crimson Tide sat in second place in the SEC men's basketball standings entering Saturday, tied with the Tennessee Volunteers and the Arkansas Razorbacks. With both Tennessee and Arkansas winning earlier in the day, Alabama knew it needed to handle its business on the road against the LSU Tigers (14-12, 2-11) to remain alive in the race for the double bye in the SEC tournament, which is now just three weeks away.

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While it wasn't Alabama's prettiest performance this season, the Crimson Tide took care of business on the road in Baton Rouge with a 90-83 victory over LSU.

Alabama head coach Nate Oats said on Friday that the Tide faced a "maturity test" against LSU after Wednesday's emotionally draining 117-115 victory over Arkansas in double overtime. Several of Alabama's players had career performances against the Razorbacks, but it came at a cost: every starter played more minutes against Arkansas than they had in a single game this season. How would an exhausted Alabama team handle the test on the road?

Alabama started slow, deadlocked with LSU for much of the first half. The Tide shot 38.5% from three-point range in the first half, led by Wednesday night's overtime hero, Houston Mallette, who scored six points on two-for-two shooting from deep range in the first half. Aden Holloway led the way in first-half scoring with 10 points, despite his three-point shot not falling on Saturday. Even still, he shot 50% from the floor and made all four of his free-throw attempts in the first half.

Even though his threes weren't falling, Holloway scored seven points in the second half, ending the night as Alabama's leading scorer with 17 points. He narrowly won Saturday night's scoring lead, though, with freshman forward Amari Allen right behind him at 16 points. Allen was 4-9 from the floor, 2-5 from three-point range, and a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line. Fellow freshman London Jemison continued to build on strong performances in limited minutes in Saturday's win, scoring 12 points and collecting six rebounds on just 19 minutes played, the fewest of Alabama's starters.

Despite fouling out with 5:56 left in Saturday's contest, Alabama big man Aiden Sherrell recorded his second career double-double, with his first coming on Wednesday against Arkansas. Sherrell recorded 12 points and 10 rebounds against LSU, making 4-5 shots from the floor and 2-3 from three-point range.

After scoring a career-high 35 points against Arkansas, it was a quieter night for star sophomore guard Labaron Philon, who popped up on Friday night's availability report. Philon ended the night with eight points, snapping his streak of 27 straight games scoring double digits for the Tide, starting in the Elite Eight loss last season to the Duke Blue Devils. He had previously scored double-digit points in every game this season for Alabama. There is likely no cause for concern, however, as he can now rest until Alabama's next game against Mississippi State.

Alabama Players Who Scored Double Digits

Aden Holloway: 17 points
Amari Allen: 16
Latrell Wrightsell Jr.: 14
Aiden Sherrell: 12
London Jemison: 12

Alabama's victory over the LSU Tigers was the Tide's 20th win of the season, with Alabama improving to 20-7 overall and 10-4 in SEC play. Alabama remains tied with Tennessee and Arkansas in second place in the SEC men's basketball standings, with Alabama holding the tiebreaker over Arkansas after the Tide's 117-115 double overtime win on Wednesday.

Alabama's next game will be its second-to-last home game of the year, hosting Mississippi State on Wednesday, February 25. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. CT.

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.