Latrell Wrightsell Jr.'s Career Day Leads Alabama to Road Victory
Alabama basketball put on another offensive clinic in the Crimson Tide's 109-92 win over LSU in Baton Rouge on Saturday. But despite Alabama's barrage of 3-pointers and a big second-half lead, the home-team Tigers had cut the deficit to just one point with less than eight minutes to go.
The Crimson Tide needed stops on defense and buckets on offense. And Latrell Wrightsell Jr. helped provide both. He grabbed the defensive rebound that started Alabama's 33-17 run to end the game along with two of his six key 3-pointers during that stretch.
Wrightsell finished with his first double-double of the year with 21 points and 10 rebounds, both season highs. He also added in four assists and one steal all without turning the ball over himself.
However, the double-double almost didn't happen. Nate Oats was pulling the starters off the floor with just over a minute to go with the Crimson Tide holding a sizable lead, but at that point Wrightsell was sitting at nine rebounds. His teammates wanted to make sure he got the 10th.
"I put five guys at the table, and they came over to me, 'Let Trelly get one more rebound,'" Oats said after the game. "So I turned to the five going in, and all of them were like, 'Coach, don't put me in. Let him stay in for me.'"
A few second later, Wrightsell snagged his 10th and final rebound. He was quickly taken out of the game and immediately mobbed by his teammates in celebration on the bench. After the game, Wrightsell was awarded the hard hat.
The senior guard shot 6 for 9 (66 percent) from beyond the arc. He hit more 3-pointers in this game than in his last three SEC games combined. Even with his high shooting percentage, Oats still feels like he passed up some open shots.
"Trelly hits big baskets," Oats said. "I mean, I get irritated with him when he passes up open shots. He's such a good shooter. It's like every time he shoots, you can pretty much count on three points in my head. If he misses, I'm shocked."
Wrightsell said it's a big confidence booster that his coach believes in him that much to never opt out on open looks from 3.
Whenever LSU started to make a run to get back into the game, it seemed like Wrightsell had an answer for the Crimson Tide. The Tigers went on a 8-0 run in the second half to cut it to 68-65, and the home crowd was starting to get loud. Wrightsell silenced the crowd with his fourth 3-pointer of the game to push the Alabama lead back to six.
Not only was Wrightsell big at the end of the game, but he made his first two 3-point attempts from the game on Alabama's first two possessions to get the scoring. As a team, the Crimson Tide finished with 18-of-44 (41 percent) from beyond the arc.
Alabama improves to 4-2 in SEC road games and bounced back from the disappointing performance at Auburn on Wednesday.
"It was definitely a big win," Wrightsell said. "Coming off the game we just had, we definitely needed this win. To win the conference, we need these games– we need road wins. We have three more left, and we started off with a good one with the first one."
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