No. 4 Alabama wins thriller at No. 14 Mississippi State

STARKVILLE, Miss. — No. 4 Alabama went into Humphrey Coliseum on Wednesday night and got a thrilling win, beating No. 14 Mississippi State 88-84. The win moves the Crimson Tide to 18-3 on the season and 7-1 in SEC play, picking up yet another big road win in conference.

Alabama went with the same starting lineup for the second straight game, going with Mark Sears, Chris Youngblood, Jarin Stevenson, Grant Nelson and Cliff Omoruyi.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Mississippi State came out of the gate with loads of energy, jumping out to an 8-3 lead early off the heels of back-to-back threes from star guard Josh Hubbard. By the game’s first media timeout Alabama still trailed, with the game’s score being 11-7 through four minutes.

Alabama kept chipping away at the lead over the next four minutes, with a plethora of Tide players getting involved in the scoring early on. The game had a fast pace and not a lot of stops defensively, with Mississippi State leading 21-20 at the under-12 timeout. Labaron Philon had a nice start coming off the bench, making his first two field goals for five early points.

Alabama took the lead over the next 4-minute stretch, as Sears showed off his passing ability with a few eye-popping assists to Nelson. The game’s pace continued to be extremely up-tempo, with both teams getting up tons of shots early in the shot clock and flying up and down the floor in transition.

Coming out of the timeout the Tide found its stride offensively. An 8-0 run led by Youngblood and capped off with a deep transition three from Sears prompted a Mississippi State timeout, with Alabama leading 35-27 with about five minutes to go in the half.

Mississippi State didn’t go down without a fight, going on a 10-2 run immediately after Alabama’s run to tie the game at 37 points apiece. Alabama responded with a 7-2 run of its own going into halftime, leading 44-39 at the break.

The Tide’s leading scorer at halftime was Youngblood, who had 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from deep, easily Alabama’s best shooting performance at that point in the game. Nelson was the Tide’s second leading scorer with nine, and tied for the leading rebounder with four.

The Bulldogs again came out with a lot of energy to start the second half, and the Humphrey Coliseum crowd was ready to erupt. Alabama weathered the early storm, though, and knocked down two threes from Holloway and Sears to push its lead to 54-47 entering the first media timeout of the second half.

Mississippi State found a run in them, making five shots in a row and cutting the lead down to one off a number of Alabama turnovers that gave easy runouts. The Tide turned it over five times in the first eight minutes of the second half after turning it over five times total in the entire first half.

The Bulldogs continued their ridiculous shotmaking display in the second half, making 10-of-11 field goals over a stretch to claw back and take the lead over Alabama entering the under-8 timeout. The Crimson Tide kept knocking down threes to keep the game close, but with 7:33 remaining, Mississippi State held a 72-70 lead.

Youngblood was the star of the second half, and the whole game, for Alabama. He continually made 3-pointer after 3-pointer in critical spots, including one to put the Tide up right before the under-4 timeout. With the game stopped with 3:57 to go, Alabama led 80-79.

The back-and-forth continued all the way down to the final minutes, with each possession feeling like it held the weight of the world. Inside 30 second to go Alabama missed three straight free throws with a 1-point lead, but found a way to pull it out in the end.

PLAYERS OF THE GAME

Chris Youngblood — 23 points, 7 made 3-pointers

Mark Sears — 17 points, 6 rebounds, 9 assists

Aden Holloway — 12 points

WHAT’S NEXT

Alabama will be back at home this Saturday to take on Georgia inside Coleman Coliseum. The game will tip off at 3 p.m. CT on ESPN2.

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