BamaCentral Courtside: No. 4 Alabama Basketball 79, LSU 69
BATON ROUGE, La. — It might not have been the prettiest win of the season. Nevertheless, No. 4 Alabama basketball defeated LSU on the road Saturday afternoon, 79-69.
The Crimson Tide improved to 20-3 on the season and is now 10-0 in conference play. The perfect 10-0 start to conference play marks just the fourth time that Alabama has been able to do so in program history, and the second time in the last three seasons.
A slow start for the Crimson Tide in the first half allowed the Tigers to stretch out to an 8-4 lead to start the game. However, a 15-3 run by Alabama — which included two 3-pointers and a layup by Nimari Burnett — propelled the Crimson Tide back out in front.
Alabama was able to drive forward to a 44-37 halftime lead, with LSU hanging around due to free throws. In fact, at halftime the Tigers had shot 13-of-14 from the free-throw line compared to the Crimson Tide's 6-of-6.
The second half saw LSU surge and retreat, with Alabama maintaining the lead. At the 7:20 mark, a 3-pointer by Mark Sears gave the Crimson Tide its largest lead of the game with 12 points. However, the basket marked the last one for Alabama.
The Crimson Tide was unable to record a basket for the final 7:20 of the contest, with two free throws each for Sears and Brandon Miller marking the only points scored. Alabama's defense battened down the hatches, though, holding LSU to just six points over the same span.
Check out the video above where BamaCentral's own Blake Byler and Austin Hannon break down the Crimson Tide's 79-69 win over the Tigers in Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
See Also:
No. 4 Alabama Downs Pesky LSU 79-69 in Baton Rouge
No. 4 Alabama Used Defense Down the Stretch to Extinguish LSU
