Alabama basketball moves to 2-0 in SEC play after win over South Carolina

The Alabama men’s basketball team is now 10-5 and 2-0 in the SEC after soundly beating South Carolina 74-47 on Tuesday night in Coleman Coliseum, which means this is now the fourth consecutive season the Crimson Tide have began the year 2-0 in conference play. That’s quite a run.

How It Happened

This was easily Alabama’s best defensive effort of the season. Even with starting big Mohamed Wague held out with a lower body injury, the Tide played with a lot of energy and urgency on defense, and when you combine that effort with the team shooting 44.1% on 34 three-point attempts, you get a sizable victory. UA did get down by seven points early, but they quickly battled back and things went back and forth for the remainder of the first half (30-29 lead at halftime). From there, Alabama outscored the Gamecocks a whopping 44-18 in the second half, which was the best half of basketball we’ve seen from this team so far.

Key Stats

Obviously, the defensive effort was big in this one, as a now 13-2 South Carolina team was held to by far its lowest scoring output of the season. But equally as important was the ball movement on offense. Alabama totaled 15 assists in this one compared to the Gamecocks, who only had eight. Granted, UA had a much better scoring percentage (48% to just 31% for South Carolina), but there seemed to be good chemistry brewing on the offensive end, too.

Speaking of defense though, Alabama was lights out in the second half. I’ve already mentioned that they only allowed 18 points in the final 20 minutes of action, but South Carolina didn’t even score its first basket until there was only 13:28 left on the clock. So yes, there were some good things happening at times on offense, but it’s the defensive effort that allowed UA to create significant separation. With Wague out, Nick Pringle added two blocks to his season total, but he only had four rebounds (all of which came on defense).

I’d like to see a little more from the Tide on that front.

Players of the Game

There were good defensive performances all around, but Mark Sears and Aaron Estrada stole the show offensively. The two combined to score 48 of Alabama’s 74 points (64.9%) with the next highest UA scorer being Sam Walters at just six points. Sears was the main producer though, as he had 31 points while making 10 of his 13 field goals (76.9%) and six of his eight three-point attempts (75%). Estrada hit 3-of-4 three-point attempts, and the two combined for 13 rebounds, five assists and five steals. And with the way Alabama played defense, there wasn’t a need to have several guys getting into the double digits.

Walters continues to be hot from three-point land though. He hit 2-of-3 attempts, which means he’s now converted 50% of more of his three-point shots in seven of Alabama’s last eight games dating back to Arkansas State on Dec. 4. That’s helping him shoot more than 50% on the year, too. There are still some deficiencies on the defensive end, but his shooting has really helped the Crimson Tide in recent weeks. That’ll be needed in this next game.

What’s Next

Next up, Alabama will travel 85 miles West to Starkville to take on Mississippi State on Saturday. The Bulldogs are currently 11-3 on the season, but they’ve lost their only SEC game so far this season, which ironically enough came against South Carolina (68-62 final score). Tipoff for that game is set for 7:30 p.m. CT, and it will air on the SEC Network.

Not a member, Alabama fans? Join BOL today!

Have you subscribed to BamaOnLine.com yet? You can sign up for ONE MONTH of premium access to our Alabama coverage for just $9.99! Be able to read all of BOL’s premium articles and nuggets covering Alabama sports and recruiting and also join thousands of other Crimson Tide fans around the globe on the BOL Round Table message board! CLICK HERE!