BamaCentral Courtside from Humphrey Coliseum after Alabama Beat Mississippi State

Final thoughts and takeaways from the Starkville after the Crimson Tide's dominant win.

BamaCentral writers at Mississippi State | BamaCentral

STARKVILLE, Miss.–– Alabama's injury situation has been well documented this season. Nate Oats has put together 10 different starting lineups through 17 games and has new players unavaible seemingly every time out.

Adversity is becoming a theme for this Crimson Tide team. No. 18 Alabama battled through more of it in Starkville on Tuesday night after falling behind early before rallying for a 97-82 win over Mississippi State.

"Our guys answered the bell, and the adversity continued," Oats said. "Shoot, we got down 14 at the beginning of the game, and our guys didn't quit. Just stayed with it, stayed with, stayed with it. We're going to learn how to handle adversity this year. That's what we're going to learn how to do."

Oats has been calling for better defense from his players, especially after the two-game losing skid to Vanderbilt and Texas. Even though Labaron Philon scored a career high 32 points in the win, Oats praised his defense after the game along with fellow guard Aden Holloway.

"I thought Labaron and Holloway both played significantly better on defense, which we challenged them to do," Oats said.

Mississippi State guard Josh Hubbard is the SEC's leading scorer. He finished with 23 points on Tuesday night, but scored the bulk of the points once the game was already out of hand. He was held to five points on 1-of-7 shooting in the first half.

Philon, Holloway, Amari Allen and Aiden Sherrell all finished in double figures for the Crimson Tide. Sherrell scored a career-high 22 points.

"My teammates, they were finding me," Sherrell said. "It feels great to be able to help contribute on the scoring side and on the defensive end."

Mississippi State tried to slow down the pace of the game, and the Bulldogs were successful for about the first 12 minutes. Once Alabama got going, there was no stopping the Tide. Alabama's five turnovers tied a season low.

Next up for Alabama is a road trip on Saturday to Oklahoma (11-6, 1-3 SEC) at 12 p.m. CT on SEC Network. This will be the Tide's first trip to Norman since the Sooners joined the league.

Watch the above video as Alabama Crimson Tide on SI writers Katie Windham and Hunter De Siver share their final thoughts and takeaways from Humphrey Coliseum after the Crimson Tide erased an early deficit on the way to a 97-82 win over Mississippi State in Starkville.