Labaron Philon Leads Alabama in Dominant SEC Tournament Win Over Kentucky

NASHVILLE –– “I would watch him just do amazing things on the court and we would just be like ‘Where does he get this stuff from?’ Because I didn't play ball. His dad played a little ball growing up and in high school. It's not like he just comes from this family of basketball players. Like he's just that special one, it was just in him.”

This is what Alicia Robinson, Alabama guard Labaron Philon's mother, told BamaCentral about her son earlier in the season.

Ever since the freshman phenom returned to the starting lineup after playing through an ankle injury for a couple of weeks, Philon has been on fire. He finished the regular season with four straight games scoring at least 10 points with three assists.

Throughout the season, Philon has had big games offensively and defensively. Friday night's dominant 99-70 SEC Tournament quarterfinal win over Kentucky was a display of two-way excellence by him.

Philon finished the game with 21 points on 8 of 14 from the field, with three rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block in 26 minutes of action. Most of his numbers came in the first half as his performance helped create a massive margin early in the second period.

"It's going to help us in the long run because I can get the guys going on defense," Philon said about getting hot at the right time during the postgame press conference. "I just get in that mentality to just go out and take it all in, be locked in on the defensive end. Once I do that, everybody, all the guys going to be locked in together."

Philon may have been limited in time on the floor in the second half, but he didn't have the best overall game from behind the arc as he shot 1-for-4. Nevertheless, his aforementioned numbers more than made up for it.

"Coach [Nate] Oats says it all the time, about locking in," Philon said. "If you're not making threes, you got to find some way else to impact the game. They emphasize offensive rebounding, getting in, help rebounding, helping the bigs, just play hard on defense. Just control what you can control. That's a great thing."

Philon's defense has been a big factor to his success this season. He leads the Crimson Tide in steals per game and his follow-through on the fastbreak really adds to the intangibles and effort that NBA teams are looking for.

"I call it lucky plays 'cause when I'm guarding somebody else and I can just turn around the see the ball loose, grab it, see a blur in the open floor, that's going to be easy for me. That's because of my teammates turning them over and I get the chance to go down and lay the ball up. I credit them the most."

Oats was thrilled with Philon's performance and explained that he is "peaking at the right time."

"I told him on the one, he shot the one, I don't know if it got tipped or not, it was an air ball," Oats said. "He passed up a couple immediately after. I said because you miss a shot, we're not passing up open threes. That's not how we're doing it.

"He stayed aggressive. He only hit the one. At least he was aggressive, which keeps him honest. He's able to get downhill. I thought the steals and the points off turnovers kind of got him going out in transition a little bit, got him aggressive going downhill, finishing at the rim.

"He was good. He's an instinctual player. Ends up with three steals. I thought his defensive intensity fueled his offense and got him going downhill."

This victory advances the Crimson Tide to the SEC Tournament semifinal game against No. 4 Florida on Saturday. Philon aims to lead Alabama once again.

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