Alabama basketball made clear who the better team was from start to finish Saturday. A standard that Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats has been calling for all season.

The Crimson Tide (16-6, 8-1 SEC) punished a lowly Mississippi State squad on both ends, cruising to a 99-67 win and keeping its place at the top of the conference standings.

Oats refused to allow his team’s intensity to drop, even when the Bulldogs (14-7, 3-6) got several early foul calls in the second half. That stretch culminated in Oats receiving the 23rd technical of his Alabama tenure, but it was merely a formality as the Tide continued to pour it on Saturday.

Alabama kept its foot on the gas on both ends, but more importantly, continued to be the team that wanted it more even when it was up big. The Tide's effort was arguably best on display when Grant Nelson poked away a pass, then dove on the floor to save the ball from going out of bounds, and giving possession back to the Tide. Alabama was up by 31 points.

Everything was clicking for Alabama as it finished just one point away from its seventh 100-plus point game and punctuated its biggest win in conference play with a 3 by newly-anointed scholarship player Kai Spears.

Here are three takeaways from Alabama's win over Mississippi State.

Looking at Alabama’s total, it might come as a surprise that the Tide started 1-for-7 from beyond the 3-point line and shot just 31% from beyond the arc for the game. Alabama had a stretch where it missed four straight shots in the first half and it's best scorer, Mark Sears didn’t attempt a shot until the 8:41 mark of the opening period.

Despite some shooting struggles and early offensive skids, Alabama took total control at home because of its defensive intensity and effort on hustle plays.

Alabama forced 18 Bulldogs turnovers. The Crimson Tide also held Mississippi State to 40% shooting from the field and prevented it from hitting a 3 in the first half. Alabama looked far more willing to challenge for loose balls and cashed in on nearly every Mississippi State mistake, scoring 27 points off of the Bulldogs turnovers.

"I thought a lot of that was effort," Oats said of the Tide's takeaways. "We're getting our guys to play a little bit more aggressive on D, play harder, be more assertive. This is a really compliant group. When we make points that we need to improve on they've done a pretty good job of improving on them."

Nelson made hustle play after hustle play, despite being limited to just 14 minutes due to drawing quick fouls as he attempted to guard Mississippi State’s Tolu Smith. Every Crimson Tide player was all in on the blue-collar effort, which combined with its typical elite scoring bursts shut the Bulldogs down. No Alabama player who was in the game for more than five minutes finished with a negative box plus-minus rating.

Alabama’s hustle was also evident on the glass. The Crimson Tide outrebounded the Bulldogs 48-37 and turned 20 offensive rebounds into 19 second-chance points. Sears’ contributions quickly ramped up after taking awhile to attempt is first shot. He finished as Alabama's leading scorer with 21 points, along with four rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals. Guard Aaron Estrada, who celebrated his 23rd birthday Saturday, logged another near triple-double performance with 15 points, eight rebounds and three assists.

When Alabama turned to its reserves, the Tide’s energy didn’t drop.

Mohamed Wague replaced Nelson in the first half after the South Dakota State transfer picked up two quick fouls. He immediately sparked Alabama’s bench, drawing an offensive foul and helping to set the tone on defense, which Alabama carried for the rest of the game.

Wague was consistently first to loose balls and even started breaks as a ball-handler by racing out in transition. He too was limited with foul trouble due to being matched up on Smith, but still finished with six points, three rebounds and a block. Wague made the most of the minutes he got, which will be crucial for Alabama going forward due to his injury restrictions and an unclear timetable for the return of forward Nick Pringle.

"His whole package is play hard, play aggressive," Oats said. "We gotta get him to do it without fouling but he turned some people over, he got some deflections, made some big plays so I was happy (with his performance)."

Wague’s spark ignited the rest of Alabama’s reserves Saturday. The other Mo on the Crimson Tide’s lineup, Mouhamed Dioubate continues to play the bench-energizer role. He led the Crimson Tide in rebounding with nine boards and had a career-high 14 points, along with two assists a pair of blocks and a plus-21 box plus-minus rating. He was also given the Hard Hat Award for the most blue-collar points.

"(I'm) just being dog, man." Dioubate said. "Just trying to go get it every possession I can. I know if I do that, it's gonna create more opportunities for me on offense. I just try my best just to play hard the whole game and do the little things that matter."

Dioubate wasn't the only player to log a career high in scoring Saturday.

Jarin Stevenson also came up big off of the bench for Alabama and had his best performance in conference play. Stevenson led the Crimson Tide in scoring in the first half and finished with 14 points, along with two rebounds and a steal. He showed off his shooting ability by drilling four 3s and matched his career-high in scoring while having a team-high plus-29 rating.

"I feel like we're getting different actions for me, which is helping," Stevenson said. "(My) teammates (are) getting me open, going hard. (Them) driving to the basket (and) me ghosting out and getting open shots or them setting screens for me is getting me open shots. So I feel like that's big and it's really helping me score the ball."

Stevenson’s growth this season will be massive for Alabama’s depth at forward for the rest of the campaign. He has grown into his role off the bench and seems to be getting more and more comfortable with the pace and physicality of the SEC, which is an encouraging sign for a player who is still supposed to be in high school.

"Jarin's come a long ways with how tough he's played," Oats said. "He's always had some toughness to him but he's doing it on a consistent basis now instead of picking and choosing when he's gonna play tough."

Alabama's dominant performance sets up a confident Crimson Tide team that will look to do the double over No. 16 Auburn. The Tigers took down Ole Miss 91-77 on Saturday.

The Iron Bowl of Basketball will tip off at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Auburn. The game can be seen on ESPN2.