Alabama basketball sets SEC record with 23 made 3s in blowout win over LSU

Billed as a matchup between the SEC’s two hottest offenses, Alabama basketball’s trip to LSU on Tuesday night was supposed to be a shootout. Instead, it was a slaughter.

Led by an SEC record 23 made 3s, the Crimson Tide buried the Tigers early en route to an easy 105-75 win inside of Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Alabama (12-3, 7-0 in the SEC) extended its winning streak to eight straight games, its longest run since starting the 2002-03 season with nine consecutive victories. The Crimson Tide’s 7-0 start in league play is its best since winning eight straight SEC games during the 1987 season.

Alabama’s 23 makes from beyond the arc breaks its previous SEC record of 22 set against Auburn last season. The 105 points ties a school record for most during an away game, matching the mark set during last season’s 105-102 overtime win at Georgia.

Tuesday night marked Alabama’s third straight 20-point win as the Tide beat Arkansas 90-59 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. over the weekend before taking down Kentucky 85-65 on the road last week. The last time Alabama recorded three straight 20-point victories came during the 2010-11 season when it beat Lipscomb (71-51), Pepperdine (83-60) and Toledo (83-41) in consecutive games.

"I was a little worried going into the game that we would be a little big-headed or whatever," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. "Our leaders on the team made sure that didn't happen, and we came out locked in on defense, ready to play on offense. Our leadership has been great."

Alabama buried LSU early, making six 3s in the game’s opening four minutes. John Petty contributed to four of those early makes en route to hitting his first seven shots from beyond the arc. The senior’s seventh straight 3 gave the Tide an insurmountable 48-22 lead with 6:35 to go in the half.

"Honestly, shooting the ball that well, I feel like it's just another day in the gym, another day in the lab shooting," Petty said. "And when I get in that zone, I just feel like I'm in the gym shooting by myself."

Alabama made 12 of its first 15 shots from beyond the arc and finished 53 percent (23 of 43) from 3. Three Alabama players finished the game with at least six 3s. Petty shot 8 of 10 from deep, while Jahvon Quinerly went 6 of 7 and Joshua Primo went 6 of 8.

"I think that's actually the first time where multiple guys on the time I've been on made that many 3s along with me," said Petty, who became Alabama's all-time 3-point leader last week. "It's just like Coach said, I feel like it was our mentality going in. We knew what was at stake. We knew what we had to do. Our seniors, and even our younger guys, made sure everybody was ready to go when we came here."

Petty led the way with 24 points while Primo and Quinerly had 22 points apiece. Herbert Jones was also in double figures with 13 points.

Meanwhile, LSU didn’t come out with the same hot hand from deep. The Tigers shot just 19 percent (5 of 26) from beyond the arc, including just 2 of 12 in the first half as Alabama headed into the break up 60-32.

LSU was led by freshman phenom Cameron Thomas, who scored 21 points despite going 1 of 6 from beyond the arc. Birmingham, Ala. native Trendon Watford had 11 points and eight rebounds but failed to make the same impact he provided in his two previous meetings against his home-state team.

Alabama will return home to Coleman Coliseum this weekend as it hosts Mississippi State on Saturday at 5 p.m. CT.

Alabama’s last loss came on Dec. 19, when it fell 73-71 to Western Kenucky inside of Coleman Coliseum. Since then, the Tide has outscored it next eight opponents by an average of 17.75 points per game. Following the game, Petty said Alabama’s mindset has been “real different” over the run, stating the team has been more locked in.

“It’s been real fun,” Petty said. “It’s like Coach Oats always tells us, ‘Once the Tide rises, all the boats rise.’ Our guys have been real locked in to make sure we go into every game with the right mindset. It’s always fun winning.”

On top of leading Alabama in scoring, Petty also took home the Hard Hat Award, given to the player who recorded the mot blue-collar points. Along with his game-high 24 points, the senior pulled in four rebounds while notching a team-high three steal.

Oats often preaches that a blue-collar mentality will eventually lead to success in other parts of the game. Against Arkansas over the weekend, Primo earned the Hard Hat Award despite recording just 3 points. The freshman followed that up by matching his career-high against LSU Tuesday night.

“You can’t control whether your shot goes in or not, really. ...What you can control is how hard you play, how focused you are,” Oats said. “Are you diving on the floor for loose balls? Are you getting rebounds? Are you taking charges? And when you just focus on that and let the offense flow, it flows pretty well.”

Things are going pretty well for Alabama at the moment. The Tide is ranked No. 18 in the latest Associated Press Poll, its highest ranking since it was No. 16 in December 2011. Alabama also holds a two-game lead on first place in the SEC standing and is coming off back-to-back 30-point wins.

Still, Oats thinks there is plenty of room for improvement.

“There actually is because we’re still making mistakes,” Oats said. “We had 16 and 14 turnovers in those two games. We’re averaging 15 turnovers. We have guys who are not playing particularly well right now that can give us a lot more. The rebounding, we were pretty good until the last eight minutes. I was a little bit disappointed in how we closed the game in the last eight. The rebounding we need to continue to stress and get better at. We’ll do a cleanup from this game. There may not be too many cleanups, but we’ll do a cleanup. ...We just got to keep getting better. As soon as we think there’s nothing to improve, we’re going backward. You’re either getting better or you’re getting worse, and we’re trying to get better every time out.”