SEC Champions: Alabama Basketball Clinches Regular-Season Title
STARKVILLE, Miss. — Alabama basketball is officially back.
The Crimson Tide clinched its first regular-season SEC title since 2002 by defeating Mississippi State 64-59 on Saturday night. The win secured Alabama's place as the top seed in the upcoming SEC Tournament in Nashville.
"Really proud of our guys," second-year Alabama coach Nate Oats said. "I mean, it's not easy to win an SEC championship. I thought our kids played really hard. It's the hardest we've played in a long time. They did what we asked them to do."
The regular-season title is the eighth in Alabama program history. Combining the basketball's title with the Crimson Tide's football SEC championship, the win on Saturday night marked the first time since the Florida Gators in 2006-2007 that an SEC program won titles in both basketball and football in the same academic year.
It is the first time that Alabama has done so since the 1975-1976 season, when Paul W. "Bear" Bryant was the head football coach and C.M. Newton the head basketball coach.
The Crimson Tide trailed the Bulldogs 8-5 in the opening minutes of the game, but a 15-1 run led by 10 points from sophomore guard Jahvon Quinerly put Alabama up by 10 with 5:45 left in the first half. The Crimson Tide maintained the margin, closing out the first half up 34-21.
Quinerly had quite an impressive first half, recording 15 points in the first 20 minutes. While senior wing Herb Jones was silent in the points department, he wrangled in nine rebounds in the first half.
At the 10-minute mark of the second half, Alabama's 11-point margin was still intact. However, a 10-2 run by the Bulldogs put the Crimson Tide up by only 56-53 heading into the final media timeout. The score remained the same until with 40 seconds to go, junior forward James Rojas drained a huge three-pointer to put Alabama up by six.
After the crucial three, Mississippi State (13-12) began to send Alabama (19-6) to the free-throw line with fouls to attempt a comeback that fell short.
Quinerly finished the game with the team-lead in points with 19 along with one rebound. Sophomore guard Jaden Shackelford also impressed with 14 points and six rebounds of his own.
While Jones only managed two points on the night, he played a huge part on the defensive end of the court with 14 total rebounds.
For the three Alabama seniors in Jones, John Petty Jr. and Alex Reese, the past two years have seen quite a shift. Less than two calendar years ago, the Crimson Tide was a No. 1 seed in the NIT and lost in the first round to 8-seed Norfolk State.
Now, the same three players — along with the rest of their teammates — get rings as SEC champions.
"I was really happy for all three of those guys," Oats said. "They all shot the ball poorly and they played super hard and that's what we've tried to instill. You can win games and not play well on offense if your effort is a championship-level effort and that's what they had tonight and it started with those three guys."
Alabama still has two regular-season games to go before the SEC Tournament, with the Crimson Tide hosting Auburn next Tuesday (6 p.m. CT, ESPN) before traveling to Georgia next Saturday (1 p.m. CT, CBS).
The 2021 SEC Tournament will take place on March 10-14 inside Bridgestone Arena.
