Alabama Stunned by Ole Miss in SEC Tournament Quarterfinals

NASHVILLE–– Alabama got to sit back and watch the first two days of the SEC tournament while 15-seed Ole Miss battled through two games. But the Rebels looked like the fresh team as they lead from wire to wire and beat 2-seed Alabama, 80-79 inside Bridgestone Arena on Friday night, eliminating the Crimson Tide in the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament.

"You guys can look at the records, the stats, we played them once," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said after the game. "Maybe I needed to do an analytical breakdown, show them how much better they were playing. They just beat Texas and Georgia who we were 0-2 against combined. I would have thought that would have been enough. Obviously it wasn't enough."

The Crimson Tide had the chance to take the lead with nine seconds left after Ole Miss missed a free throw and only held a one-point lead. Nate Oats elected not to take a timeout to set up a play, and Aiden Sherrell got blocked at the rim with around a second left. After another Ole Miss free throw miss, Amari Allen could not get a shot off in time with 0.5 a second left.

Ole Miss (15-19) could have changed its name to Ole "Make" in the early going because for most of the first half, the Rebels could not miss. At one point, the Rebels made seven straight field goals and led by as much as 14 in the first half.

The pendulum swung the other way for Alabama in the early part of the second half when the Crimson Tide couldn't make a shot on offense. Alabama went on a field goal drought that lasted over five minutes.

Led by Labaron Philon, Alabama made a late push, but could never take the lead. Philon along with Aden Holloway and Aiden Sherrell were Alabama's only consistent offense on the night. Philon finished with 28 points while Holloway had 18 and Sherrell had 14. Alabama got eight combined points from Amari Allen, Houston Mallette, Jalil Bethea, Latrell Wrightsell Jr. and London Jemison.

Ole Miss kept Alabama's offense off balance all night. Philon was 5 for 7 from beyond the arc, and the rest of the team combined to shoot 4-of-22. When the Tide would make runs to try and get back in the game, it could never quite find the right player to make a clutch 3-pointer.

Alabama (23-9) will now await its NCAA tournament fate in two days on Selection Sunday. This loss probably drops the Crimson Tide out of contention for a 3-seed in the NCAA tournament.

"Good thing for us is we played well enough at times during the year to guarantee ourself a tournament seed," Oats said. "But we're going to have to play significantly better. That will be one game and done in the NCAA tournament if that's the effort we're going to give in that tournament, as well."

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