Mo Dioubate essential in limiting South Carolina's best player in road win

Headed into No. 5 Alabama basketball’s game against South Carolina on Wednesday night, one of the biggest challenges was going to be stopping Gamecock forward Collin Murray-Boyles.

Murray-Boyles has been the best player for South Carolina this season, averaging 15.1 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. He’s a great back-to-the-basket scorer, an area that Alabama has struggled to defend at times this year, and he’s extremely talented, being a projected first round pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.

Alabama head coach Nate Oats went with his typical starting lineup, going with 6-foot-11 players Grant Nelson and Cliff Omoruyi as his four and five to start the game. After seeing that look, he made a change, inserting 6-foot-7 forward Mo Dioubate into the game much earlier than he typically does.

Dioubate, known for his defensive prowess and effort plays, drew the task of guarding Murray-Boyles for the vast majority of the game, and did an excellent job. Murray-Boyles was held to just six points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field on the game, his worst shooting performance of any game this season.

“I thought Mo Dioutbate’s defense on a Murray-Boyles was one of the big, big keys in the game, to be honest with you,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said after the game. “A lot of people have him in the first round of the draft. He shot 1-for-6 tonight, only had six points, and I thought Dioubate did a great job guarding him. Mo’s plus-19 in his 17 minutes when he was in. He really impacts the game in a big way. I was happy with his effort.”

Dioubate impacted the game in other ways as well, scoring seven points on 3-of-4 shooting and grabbing two rebounds in his minutes. He’s played a limited role on this year’s team, being used sparingly but seeing his minutes spike against teams that he’s a good matchup for.

His 17 minutes were an uptick from 13.5 minutes per game average, and he continued to prove how productive he can be even without playing 20-plus minutes any given game.

“He’s a tough kid. I wasn’t happy with the flagrant foul (vs. Oklahoma). It just wasn’t a smarter play. It was a turnover, so it was supposed to be our ball. They get two free throws and the ball. So he lost some minutes in that game, quite a few minutes actually, but he had had a great practice coming in. and then we got his head right again and got ready to go tonight. I thought he was a really good matchup for Murray-Boyles,” Oats said.

“He’s super strong. You can’t move him very well. I think maybe the last Collin took on the night, he just kind of threw it up there. He couldn’t really move Mo at all. He’s long. He moves well. He’s tough. So he’s been having great weeks of practice, and we’re trying to get him more minutes. And he had a great matchup tonight. He’s a guy that, if we’re ever not playing tough enough, he’s going to bring toughness. That’s what he does, and he brought it tonight, particularly on the defense end guarding their leading scorer.”

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