The University of Alabama honored its 1987 SEC Championship basketball team on Wednesday night by doing almost none of the things that team did well. Except the Crimson Tide still managed to win.

The Crimson Tide struggled to shoot the basketball from any range, including the foul line. But despite shooting 43 percent from the floor and less than 50 percent from the foul line, Alabama held off the Missouri Tigers 68-56 to move to 4-1 in SEC play and 11-6 overall.

"We can be a very good offensive team if we take care of the basketball," Alabama head coach Avery Johnson. "We scored more than 40 points in the second half. And even it was ugly, I'll take as many of these ugly wins in the conference as we can get."

Both teams struggled in the first half, shooting a combined total of 32 percent. Alabama held a 26-19 lead at halftime.

Missouri scored on the first possession of the second half to pull within four points, 26-22, but the Crimson Tide's Dazon Ingram scorched the Missouri zone defense with back-to-back 3-pointers, pushing the lead back to double digits and establishing a comfort zone which Alabama maintained for the rest of the game.

"We were playing way too slow in the first half," said UA freshman Braxton Key. "In the second half, we forced them to play man-to-man and upped the tempo some."

Riley Norris, who carried the Crimson Tide offensively on the first half, and Avery Johnson, Jr., who did most of his scoring in the second half, led Alabama with 13 points each.

"It was a fairly ugly basketball game which is the way we wanted it to be," said Missouri coach Kim Anderson. "I thought we battled but it was our customary deal where we give a team an 8- or 10-point lead and then play them even from there on.

"All I can do is keep encouraging them."

Terrence Phillips led Missouri (5-12, 0-5 SEC) with 16 points.

The Crimson Tide made just 13 of 28 free throws in the game.

"Some of our guys who are really good free throw shooters are rushing things and aren't getting their legs into it," Johnson said. "We're going to continue to work on it. Tomorrow at practice, we'll go from 100 free throws to 150."

Alabama returns to action on Saturday at Auburn.

Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil@tidesports.com or 205-722-0225.

:g33�}