Alabama junior Herb Jones found himself, cast and all, at the free-throw line with 97 seconds left on the clock with the Crimson Tide up only two points, despite leading by as much as 18 earlier in the second half.

The crowd cheered louder than it had all day as each one-handed attempt went through the bottom of the net. Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats said that moment gave him chills.

“That was the best crowd I've heard since I've been here,” Oats said. “Kind of hit a fever pitch when Herb stepped to the free throw line after they intentionally fouled him knowing he didn't have his strong hand able to shoot. Steps up with his weak hand and goes two-for-two. I think it was unreal the crowd noise when that happened.”

Freshman Jaden Shackelford and Alex Reese each knocked down a shot behind the arc and Shackelford added another three points all in the last 78 seconds as the Crimson Tide held off No. 25 LSU to secure an 88-82 victory over the Tigers in Coleman Coliseum on Saturday night.

“Beating Georgia in overtime was good,” Oats said, referring to Alabama’s last win. “We needed to win a close game, but that’s a lot different than beating LSU. Georgia, I think they are the second-worst team in our league right now if I recall correctly.”

The stat sheet doesn’t always capture the impact Jones has on the game, especially defensively. That wasn’t the case on Saturday when the junior from Greensboro hauled in a career-high 17 of Alabama’s 42 total rebounds against the Tigers (18-7, 9-3 Southeastern conference).

“Knowing that I was going to be kind of short-handed on the offensive end,” Jones said. “I just knew I had to impact the game another way, and anytime they shot the ball, I crashed, or I had to match up with Emmitt Williams, who is a great rebounder, and I had to box him out. Keeping him off the glass, it opened myself up for a lot of rebounds.”

Jones may have lived on the glass, but really the junior was everywhere in his first starting action since suffering a wrist fracture against LSU on Jan. 29 when the Tigers won the first meeting by 14 points.

He finished with six points, three assists, two blocks and one steal in 29 minutes of action for the Crimson Tide (14-11, 6-6 SEC).

Oats thought Alabama lost control of the game when he pulled sophomore Kyra Lewis Jr. out after the guard was called for his fourth personal foul with six minutes left in the game. At the time, the Crimson Tide led by 12 points.

LSU cut that lead down to six points when Lewis Jr. finally checked back into the game with three minutes left. He didn’t add to his team-high point total of 27, but he did record an assist on Shackelford’s three-point shot, which put Alabama up by four points with 1:18 left in the game.

Shackelford finished the victory with 26 points. He also knocked down a three-point shot with 8:27 left in the first half that officially broke Alabama's single-season record (previously set at 259) for made three-point shots.

When the game ended, the Crimson Tide's new record stood at 267 and counting. Alabama will keep pushing the record further when the team returns to the court on Wednesday against Texas A&M.

"We'd been saying we needed another Quad 1 win," Oats said. "We got it. … Got to use this to kind of get us some momentum rolling along in the last third of conference play."

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