NASHVILLE, TN- Despite a slow shooting start Alabama prevailed 72-61 over Missouri thanks to a 16-3 second-half run led by freshman All-American Brandon Miller who scored 20 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, and dished out four assists. Miller set a school freshman scoring record in the win for the Tide and it was a program record 28th win as the Tide improved to 28-5 this season.

After a 2-15 start from three, Alabama players hit 6-12 from three in the second half with Miller hitting three of his four attempts scoring 16 second-half points to pace the Tide after sitting for five minutes late in the second half with foul trouble.

"I really feel like my teammates really just built the confidence in me, just to be able to take over a game. I feel like my teammates kept putting little words in my head just to build my confidence," Miller said.

Miller is sitting at 645 points this season passing Collin Sexton with 632 points who held the freshman record. The freshman took the record in stride and said it would be impossible without his teammates.

"I mean, it's a great accomplishment. But without my team, I wouldn't have done it without them. Them building my confidence, like I said. Just them being here for me, just really building my confidence to break records like that. That's the biggest thing," Miller said.

Alabama head Nate Oats is aiming to win his second outright SEC Title as both the regular season and tournament champs. He said that going into the tournament he told his team they'd have to find different ways to win and they did it with the defense on Saturday afternoon in Bridgestone Arena.

"If you're going to win a tournament, you're going to have to do it in different ways. We said that. We found different ways to win," Oats said. "Today wasn't our best. I thought we came out of the gate fairly strong again, but defensively we let down in the first half. Beginning of the second half we weren't great. We were forced to call a timeout on the inbound play. We got after our guys a little bit, they responded well. It wasn't just not making shots. I know we didn't shoot it very well in the first half. I think we were 2 of 15 from three. Clowney had our only two makes. He's a confident kid."

Every time Missouri cut into the Bama lead Miller, Noah Clowney or even Noah Gurley responded with clutch baskets.

Clowney ended up with 19 points and hit three of his six three-point attempts.

Alabama center Charles Bediako was the other double-digit scorer for Alabama with 10 points, five rebounds plus a block and a steal. He hit all five of his shots from the field.

Guard Jahvon Quinerly was less effective for the Tide scoring but helped the offense move the ball with seven assists, he was 0-9 shooting with one point.

Doing the dirty work was Rylan Griffen who helped spur Alabama’s run in the second half off the bench moving the ball with four rebounds and two assists.

Defensively, Alabama held the Tigers to 31.4 percent shooting in the second half and just 3-13 from three. Missouri shot just 33.8 percent for the game and 25 percent (7-25) from three.

Turnovers by the Tide kept Missouri in the game as the Tigers scored 18 points on the 17 turnovers committed by Alabama, Missouri had just five turnovers in the game.

D’Moi Hodge led Missouri with 21 points and nine rebounds, but DeAndre Gholston and Nick Honor combined for 7-27 shooting and 20 points including Honor missing on all but one of his 10 shots. All-Conference Missouri forward Kobe Brown who averages 16 points per game was held in check scoring just six points on 3-9 shooting and he committed four fouls in the game. Clowney said that defending Brown was a major coaching point going into the game and something the team took pride in.

"I think he's a great player," Clowney said of Brown. "As far as defending him, I think it was a five-man deal. A lot of the things we do incorporate other people on the floor just to defend one player at times. We as a team did a great job on him."

The first half was not ideal for Alabama. The Tide committed nine turnovers and with star Brandon Miller picking up two fouls and playing just 11 minutes with 4 points and eight rebounds it was a slog. The Tide shot a woeful 2-15 from the arc as well. Noah Clowney carried Bama with 11 points on 4-6 shooting and 2-4 from three in the first half. D’Moi Hodge and Noah Carter each led Missouri with seven points, the Tigers hit 4-12 from three including a prayer with two seconds on the shot clock at the end of the half from Hodge to make it 31-29 at the break.

Alabama will play for its second SEC Tournament title in three years on Sunday at noon against the winner of the Vanderbilt-Texas A&M game.

The Tide opened the game going 0-8 and 2-11 shooting to trail 7-5 at the first media timeout with 14:12 left in the first half. Alabama went on a 6-0 run as Missouri continued to struggled offensively leading to a Gates timeout with 12:05 left in the first half and the Tide up 11-7. It took 16 three-point tries by the two teams combined before Nick Honor for Missouri hit the first three of the game with 8:58 left in the half. Clowney snapped the three-point drought for the Tide on the 11th attempt of the game. Alabama extended the lead to eight by the next media timeout 22-14 with 6:10 left. Missouri hit five of six shots to pull within three at the final media timeout with 1:13 left 29-26. Hodge hit a prayer from the corner with two seconds left on the shot clock to make it 31-29 with 1.8 seconds left and that was the score going into the half.

Missouri continued to push the Tide out of halftime taking a 32-31 lead forcing an Oats timeout just a little over a minute into the first half. Quinlery turned the ball over in the inbound after the timeout and Missouri took a 35-31 lead. Miller responded with a hoop and harm tying Collin Sexton’s freshman scoring record with his free throw to make it 35-34. Miller picked up his third foul with 17:51 left. Alabama took the lead back on a hoop and harm bucket by Clowney off a pass from Rylan Griffen 41-39. Miller extended the lead to five as he broke Sexton’s freshman scoring record with a three to make it 44-39. The Tide stretched the run to 14-3 and led 50-42 with 9:34 left forcing a timeout from Gates. The run extended to 16-3 and a 10 point lead for the Tide before Missouri was able to answer after a three-plus minute scoreless stretch. Alabama thanks to a Clowney three led 62-53 at the final media timeout with 3:40 left.