Alabama Handles Business Against South Carolina to Extend Win Streak

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Playing at home inside Coleman Coliseum this season has been a bit like some of the most popular Valentine's candies on the market: sometimes sweet, sometimes sour. Saturday night's game against South Carolina had a mix of both for Alabama, but the Crimson Tide prevailed for a 89-75 win over the Gamecocks, extending its winning streak to four games.

"Good win, give us four in a row," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said after the game. "A lot of stuff we didn't do great, but we did enough to get a win in SEC play."

The sweet:

Latrell Wrightsell Jr., Labaron Philon Jr. and Aden Holloway's 3-point shooting.- The three guards combined to go 11-of-19 from beyond the arc to pace the Alabama offense

Amari Allen's rebounding- The freshman forward snagged 10 rebounds for his seventh double-digit rebounding performance of the season.

Another SEC win- The Crimson Tide is now 8-4 in league play with six games left in the regular season.

The sour:

Alabama's free throw shooting- The Tide shot 70 percent from the line, making 19 of 27 shots. That percentage doesn't sound bad, and it isn't, but a lot of the makes came at the end of the game, and Alabama missed the front end of multiple trips to the line.

Second-half defense on Meechie Johnson- Alabama held South Carolina's leading scorer under control in the first half with just two points at the break, but he scored 24 in the second half alone to keep the Gamecocks in the game.

Ball security- Alabama turned it over 12 times, leading to 12 South Carolina points off of turnovers. The Tide was too careless with the ball throughout the game.

It was a bit of a sloppy start to the game for the Tide with turnovers on three straight possessions at one point early in the first half. But the team settled in and was up 45-32 at halftime.

Alabama came out of the half and built up its lead to 17 points, and it looked like the Tide was going to run away with the game comfortably. Johnson had something to say about it. He single-handedly kept it a competitive game and prevented it from being a big blowout. South Carolina cut the Alabama lead down to seven points with 8:20 to go after Johnson went on a personal 9-0 run.

"The one thing I was not happy at all about was our defense on Meechie Johnson in the second half," Oats said. "I mean, he had two at the half. We told the guys, 'He's coming.' We saw what he did when he played Texas, and sure enough, he was coming, and he ended up with 24 in the second half, and we didn't do a good job... We've got to get a defensive intensity about us–– we're still not there yet."

There were multiple scoring droughts throughout the game from both teams, yet Alabama still finished close to its scoring average with 89 points. Holloway led the Tide in scoring with 20 points as Philon and Wrightsell both scored 19.

Even though he only played six minutes, Jalil Bethea provided a spark off the bench, including a transition dunk with 9:29 to go. Houston Mallette finished with three points but continues to make the type of blue-collar plays that win basketball games in the SEC. Mallette had six rebounds, two assists and two steals.

RISE UP JALIL!#RollTide | #BlueCollarBasketball pic.twitter.com/rv0ItB5fu0
— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) February 15, 2026

These are the type of games Alabama (18-7, 8-4 SEC) needs to win at home against teams like South Carolina (11-14, 2-10) if it wants to stay in the race for a double bye in the SEC tournament and high seed in the NCAA tournament. The Tide has the chance to extend the streak again at home Wednesday against Arkansas at 6 p.m.

"We're trying to learn from our wins and losses," Alabama forward Aiden Sherrell said after the game. "The game against Florida, we got beat pretty bad, and we had to have a coming-to-self moment, and we had to come together, and we gonna figure out how we want this season to end."

SEC mens' basketball standings

Team	SEC record
Florida	10-2
Arkansas	9-3
Vanderbilt	8-4
Tennessee	8-4
Alabama	8-4
Kentucky	8-4
Missouri	7-5
Texas A&M	7-5
Texas	7-5
Georgia	5-7
Auburn	5-7
Mississippi State	4-8
Oklahoma	3-9
Ole Miss	3-9
LSU	2-10
South Carolina	2-10

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