Alabama Loses Overtime Battle in Baton Rouge

With the SEC regular season winding down to the end, Alabama's regular season finale at LSU came down to the wire and even needed a few extra minutes to determine a winner.

In overtime, the Crimson Tide trailed by one with 12 seconds to go. Alabama inbounded the ball with four seconds left on the shot clock and failed to get a shot off. LSU made two free throws on the other end and held on to win 80-77.

Alabama head coach Nate Oats said freshman guard JD Davison did not know there were only four seconds on the shot clock.

"That's on me," Oats said. "As a head coach I've got to make sure to look every guy in the eye and tell them myself there's four seconds on the clock."

A steal from Darius Miles and layup from Keon Ellis gave the Crimson Tide a 77-74 lead with 1:31 to go in overtime, but the Tigers closed out the period on a 6-0 run.

"Every little detail matters in these big games, especially road games—executing stuff out of timeouts, turnovers," Oats said. "It all comes back to bite you when you wish you had a couple possessions back there at the end of the game.”

Alabama did not trail in the second half until a Darius Days layup put the Tigers up 66-64 with 3:21 to go in the game. The Crimson Tide had trouble stopping Days all game, and he led all scorers with 24 points.

Even though Alabama led for most of the second half, it could never build a lead larger than five and went large periods of time in the second half without field goals. The senior guard Ellis sparked the Alabama offense in the second half with 15 of his 19 points in the second half, including two free throws with 12 seconds left in regulation that tied the game to send it to overtime. He only had one shot attempt in the first half.

"Everyone was telling me for us to excel in this game, I have to take shots," Ellis said. "So I just started getting going by shooting it when I had the chance."

After getting down early 13-5, Alabama used three separate 8-0 runs in the first half to stay in the game

In a half with eight Alabama turnovers, it was a turnover from the Tigers that gave Alabama the halftime lead. Davison stole the ball and passed ahead to Gurley, who slammed it home as the first half clock expired to take a 38-36 lead into halftime.

Now, THAT is how you finish the half. @AlabamaMBB pic.twitter.com/YZQd4HQQv4
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 5, 2022

The Crimson Tide started out hot from beyond the arc, particularly guards Jahvon Quinerly and JD Davison. Alabama made five of its first nine 3-point shoots, but made just one of its final 13 deep shots and finished 11-40 from the 3-point line. Jaden Shackelford, Alabama's leading scorer on the season, went 0-8 from behind the arc and finished with six points.

Overall, Alabama showed more effort and intensity than it did last time out against Texas A&M. The Tide outrebounded the Tigers 42-33, and Oats said he thought the defense was "markedly improved" from the second half of the A&M game.

But ultimately the turnovers were the biggest detriment for the Crimson Tide, including the final turnover with the shot clock violation at the end of the game. Alabama finished with 21 total turnovers, its third highest total of the season.

"Our turnovers are a major issue right now," Oats said. "If you look at the way the game went, if we take care of the ball, we probably win the game in regulation."

With the loss to LSU (21-10, 9-9 SEC), Alabama (19-12, 9-9 SEC) will now wait to see where it lands in the SEC standings depending on the rest of Saturday's results in the conference, but regardless will open play at the SEC Tournament in Tampa on Thursday.

"We've got to regroup," Oats said. "We gotta figure out who we're going to play— I have no idea who we're going to play in the first round of the SEC tournament. We've got to get ourselves ready to play in the SEC Tournament though."