Defense leads Alabama past Mississippi State, into SEC semifinals

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WBMA) — Alabama has had its fair share of offensive struggles over the past couple of weeks but the top-seeded Crimson Tide found its rhythm early during the SEC Tournament quarterfinal matchup against Mississippi State.

No. 4 Alabama scored the first seven points of the game and finished the first half with 41 points, its highest-scoring first half in nearly three weeks. The Crimson Tide led by 20 at halftime then turned to its defense to finish the job, defeating the Bulldogs 72-49 to earn a spot in Saturday's semifinals.

“It was a good start to the tournament," Alabama coach Nate Oats said. "We obviously didn't play very well last time we were out at Texas A&M, so we needed to bounce back. We've bounced back off losses pretty well all year. I think the margin of victory after a loss is 20-plus points. We did that again today."

After a pair of good performances to end the regular season, Jahvon Quinerly was moved into the starting lineup and helped Alabama's offense get off to a quick start. Quinerly scored eight of his 10 points including a pair of 3-pointers in the first eight minutes of the game.

Alabama (27-5) made eight 3-pointers in the first half, including one by Dom Welch with just over six minutes to go in the first half to give the Tide a double-digit lead for the first time. Mississippi State did not get its deficit below 11 points for the rest of the game.

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Brandon Miller led Alabama with 18 points while grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out five assists in 28 minutes on the court. He led the team with four 3-pointers, three of them coming in the first half.

As a team, the Crimson Tide finished 13-of-37 from beyond the arc, the most made 3-pointers by the team since a win over Georgia on Feb. 18. Seven different players made at least one 3-pointer Friday afternoon.

Noah Gurley scored 11 points off the bench, knocking down three 3-pointers which matches his highest total for a game in his two seasons with Alabama.

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Alabama did have some shooting struggle in the second half and finished just 40 percent from the floor for the game but the team's defense remained locked in for the final 20 minutes of the game. Mississippi State shot just 31 percent from the floor and 8 percent on 3-pointers, leading to the team's lowest scoring game of the season.

The Crimson Tide scored 19 points off 12 turnovers while the Bulldogs scored just four points off Alabama's seven turnovers, which matches the team's lowest turnover total of the season. Alabama outscored Mississippi State 20-2 in fast break points.

Alabama's Charles Bediako finished with five blocked shots to go with his 11 points and six rebounds.

"Lastly, it was Charles' birthday today," Oats said. "Our guys are great. They gave him a big, huge birthday celebration this morning, sang to him. He finished with five blocks on his birthday, too. I thought he controlled the paint pretty well. He won the hardhat for all the blue-collar points.”

Alabama advances to the SEC Tournament semifinals and it will play again Saturday at noon at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The Crimson Tide will square off against Missouri.