Alabama Basketball's Offense Returns in 97-83 Rout of Ole Miss

Following Alabama basketball's loss to No. 5 Kentucky last Saturday, the Crimson Tide needed a solid offensive performance in order to regain its confidence. On Wednesday night in Oxford, Miss., Alabama did just that in a 97-83 victory over the Ole Miss Rebels.

The win snapped a four-game road losing streak for the Crimson Tide.

"I thought our guys showed some fight — some resolve — when we got down 11 early," Alabama coach Nate Oats said after the game. "I think the law of averages helped us maybe tonight. If you go 3-of-30 against Kentucky, we were due to have a decent shooting night.

"So we know we're more than capable of shooting it well."

Alabama came out of the gate sluggish, allowing Ole Miss to jump out to a 15-8 lead powered by 11 points from Rebels guard Jarkel Joiner. Five-consecutive 3-pointers by Ole Miss then gave the Rebels its largest lead of the game. At the 9:29 mark, Ole Miss led Alabama 30-19.

The Crimson Tide hadn't given up just yet, though. Over the first half's final nine minutes, Alabama outscored Ole Miss 30-8, including a 27-6 run to rocket out to a 49-38 lead at halftime.

The 22-point swing was propelled forward by six 3-pointers, with junior guard Jaden Shackelford hitting four of them. After the first 20 minutes, Shackelford led the Crimson Tide in points with 19, with senior guard Keon Ellis finishing second on the team with 10 points.

While Alabama had started out slow on offense, it closed out the first half shooting 54.8 percent from the floor and a solid 66.7 percent from beyond the arc.

"I thought our guys showed a lot of fight," Oats said. "We got down 11. They came out and made shots. In the past maybe we would have gotten a little discouraged, but I thought we kept playing hard, made some adjustments on defense, finished the half on a good run. Obviously I thought we shot the ball well."

To start the second half, the Crimson Tide briefly appeared to have slipped back into its old habits, allowing the Rebels to score 9 unanswered points to pull within 2 in the opening minutes. However, Alabama then strung together a 10-2 run powered by two more 3-pointers by Shackelford. Another 9-2 run — including freshman guard J.D. Davison's second three of the night — put Alabama up by 14 points with just over 12 minutes left in the game.

The remaining minutes of the first half primarily consisted of back-and-forth exchanges of baskets, with Alabama holding a double-digit lead for the remainder of the game. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Gurley and Shackelford with three minutes left in the game gave the Crimson Tide its largest lead of the evening at 17 points.

Ole Miss was unable to overcome Alabama's offense, and the Crimson Tide prevailed over the Rebels 97-83.

After starting both halves with a lackluster offensive performance, Alabama stormed back and shot a total of 60 percent from the floor, making 36-of-60 shot attempts on the night. From beyond the arc, the Crimson Tide rang 14-of-22 3-pointers, a percentage of 63.6 percent.

Shackelford finished the game with 30 points, a career-high for the junior guard. In total, Shackelford accounted for eight of Alabama's 14 3-pointers on the night. Davison finished second on the Crimson Tide with 18, followed by Ellis with 13 and Gurley with 10.

After the game, Shackelford credited his teammates for his success against the Rebels.

"Just my teammates getting me going," Shackelford said. "They find me when I'm open and obviously you gotta be ready to knock down shots as a shooter, from our bench — everybody in the program just gets you going when you're making shots so it's easy to keep your confidence up when you got guys around you and a coach that trusts you."

Gurley led Alabama in rebounds with seven, followed by Holt's six and Shackelford with five.

With the win, Alabama improves to 15-9 overall and is now 5-6 in SEC play. Ole Miss drops to 12-12 on the season and is 3-8 in the conference.

Up next, Alabama returns to Coleman Coliseum to host Arkansas on Saturday, Feb. 12 (11 a.m. CT, SEC Network).

Gallery: Alabama Basketball 97, Ole Miss 83

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