Alabama basketball proved it can overcome obstacles in win over Missouri

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama basketball played a team that couldn’t miss at the free-throw line. The Crimson Tide’s backup point guard fouled out with 9:07 to play, while its starting point guard played the final 7:33 with four fouls.

No problem. Even with the odds stacked against it at times Saturday afternoon, Alabama cruised to an 88-74 victory over Missouri. That’s just the way things have been going for the Crimson Tide, which has now won eight out of its last 11 games, including an upset victory over No. 4 Auburn earlier this week.

TAKE THREE: Alabama battles past Missouri 88-74

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Saturday’s scoreline suggests a walk in the park for the Crimson Tide. In reality, it was anything but. Alabama suffered several dry spells from the floor and allowed Missouri to capitalize from the free-throw line all afternoon. The Tigers never truly looked like pulling the road upset, especially not while shooting 31 percent from the floor. However, Missouri still proved to be a pesky opponent, connecting on an SEC-record 31 free throws without missing a single one.

Still, Alabama never trailed after pulling ahead five minutes into the first half on what was more or less a drama-free affair inside Coleman Coliseum.

"For us to still win by 14 when they set an SEC record for number of free throws made and 100 percent, that speaks a lot to what else we were doing well," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said, "because we didn't do a very good job keeping them off the free-throw line.”

Sure Alabama did a lot of things right. The Crimson Tide held the Tigers to 5 of 20 (25 percent) from beyond the arc, connected on 13 3s of its own and shot a respectable 25 of 30 (83 percent) from the free-throw line. However, it was how Alabama handled adversity that truly spoke volumes toward its potential as a true SEC contender.

The Crimson Tide began the game 1 of 6 from the floor before shooting 45 percent (25 of 56) on the afternoon. Alabama also started 1 of 6 from beyond the arc but rebounded to hit 10 of its next 19 shots from deep to take a 47-40 lead into the half. In total, Alabama attempted a season-high 39 3-point attempts, connecting on 33.3 percent of them — not stellar, but enough to get the job done.

“Thirteen of 39’s not great, but it’s not bad. I mean, it’s making a third of them," Oats said. "You make a third of your 3s, and you’re at 1.0 points a possession. You get a few more rebounds — it’s a lot easier to rebound 3s than it is some 2s that are long rebounds. You chase them down, you add the rebounds in, you’re probably a lot closer to 1.1. Our defense was a .99 (per possession), so you win the game doing that.”

In layman’s terms, Oats’ system of high-volume shots from deep proved it worked even when those 3-point attempts weren’t falling at an elite level.

The head coach went on to point out that Alabama’s offensive attack spreads out defenses which opens up more driving lanes for easy buckets. That formula worked, even against a Missouri defense which entered the game leading the SEC in scoring defense, allowing 59.7 points per contest.

The Tigers elected to switch defensive assignments several times Saturday to disrupt Alabama’s perimeter shooting. However, that oftentimes resulted in a matchup between a slow-footed big against speedy point guard Kira Lewis Jr., who was able to slash the lane and spray out passes for open looks from deep.

Oats also helped Alabama maneuver out of foul trouble as James “Beetle” Bolden picked up his fifth foul midway through the second half moments after Lewis had already been tagged for his fourth foul.

At that point, Missouri’s Xavier Pinson made both his free throws to cut Alabama’s lead to 69-64 with 9:07 to play, putting the Crimson Tide in a precarious situation.

Oats managed by putting forward Herbert Jones at the point for the next two minutes as Alabama spelled Lewis to preserve him for later. The move ultimately paid off as the Crimson Tide maintained its narrow advantage over that span until Lewis returned for the final 7:33 to help put the game away.

“The way they played really tested our depth,” Oats said. “We had to let Herb run the point for a few minutes. But Kira came back and we got some stops we needed.”

A lesser Alabama team might have faltered in such circumstances, but this year’s Crimson Tide seems to be playing with the poise of a winner. That’s another credit to Oats, who had his team mentally prepared coming off an emotional 83-64 victory over No. 4 Auburn earlier in the week.

"I thought it was a huge win for our guys," Oats said. "You know, we talked to them about answering the bell a big win against Auburn, it's kind of human nature to have a letdown possibly, but we needed to avoid that.”

Alabama (10-7, 3-2 in the SEC) did just that, and now it finds itself in a comfortable position in the league heading into a winnable game on the road against Vanderbilt (8-9, 0-4) on Wednesday.

The Crimson Tide is just 2-14 in its last 16 games against the Commodores inside Memorial Gym and will need to approach the matchup with the same maturity it showed against Missouri. The positive for Alabama coming out of the weekend is that it now has the assurance that it will prevail even if the ball doesn’t always bounce its way.

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