Alabama
19-12,9-9SEC
LSU
21-10,9-9SEC
No. 25/24 Alabama Drops Regular Season Finale at LSU in Overtime, 80-77
3/5/2022 2:17:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Crimson Tide finishes the regular season at 19-12 overall and 9-9 in SEC play
BATON ROUGE, La. – The No. 25/24 Alabama men's basketball team went to overtime for the first time this season but came up on the short end as it fell at LSU, 80-77, in the regular season finale Saturday afternoon.
Senior guard Keon Ellis led Alabama in the loss with 19 points and nine rebounds, including scoring 17 in the second half and overtime. Junior guard Jahvon Quinerly finished with 16 points while freshman guard JD Davison added 12 points, five rebounds and a team-leading three steals off the bench.
Darius Days, Tari Eason and Brandon Murray accounted for 61 of LSU's 80 points with Days putting up 24 followed by 20 points from Eason and 17 from Murray.
Head Coach Nate Oats Postgame Comments
"That's a tough loss. I thought our guys played a lot harder than they did the other night. That was definitely much better. Our turnovers are a major issue. In the last four games, we gave up 94 points off turnovers. That's almost 25 points per game off turnovers. We have to look at the way the game went, if we take care of the ball we might win the game in regulation. This is a good team, they play hard on defense and force turnovers, they had 16 steals, which combined with the points off turnovers, that's hard to overcome. Every little detail matters in these games. Especially when you are on the road. Executing out of timeouts, the turnovers… it all comes back to bite you and you wish you had a couple of those possessions back. There was a lot of stuff we did well. We outrebounded them by nine. I thought our defense was improved since the second half of the (Texas A&M) game. Their bigs were good tonight and did a good job of punishing our guards inside the post. It's tough but we have to regroup and get ourselves ready to play in the SEC Tournament."
Team Stats
- Alabama went into overtime for the first time since its 88-78 loss during 2021 Sweet 16 game against UCLA
- It was the 11th overtime game in series history between the Tide and Tigers, as UA falls to 8-3 in those contests
- The back-and-forth game saw 15 ties and 12 lead changes including two lead changes in overtime
- The Tide falls to 4-3 on the season in one possession contests
- Both teams were tied for a total of 12:50, with Alabama leading for 15:55 and LSU leading for 16:17
- Of Alabama's 61 total field goal attempts for the contest, 40 of them were from deep (11-of-40)
- The loss snaps the Tide's five-game winning streak in the series
First Half
- LSU had a strong start, hitting 5-of-8 from the floor to jump out an early 12-5 lead by the first media
- The Tigers made an and-1 free throw coming out of the break to go up 13-5 but eight unanswered points by Alabama over the next three minutes evened the score at 13-13 with 12:50 on the clock
- LSU pushed the score back out to six (19-13) but once again the Tide responded, this time with a 10-1 run to give UA its first lead since the 18:24 mark for a 23-20 advantage with 9:04 to play in the half
- With the Tigers holding a 36-33 lead in the final minute, a three-pointer by Quinerly followed by a breakaway buzzer-beating dunk by Noah Gurley staked the Tide to a 38-36 halftime lead
- Quinerly recorded nine points to lead UA in the half as Davison posted eight points and three rebounds off the bench
Second Half
- Ellis paced the offense in the opening minutes of the half, scoring 13 of UA's opening 16 points, including 10 straight, as Alabama took a 54-51 lead with 12:25 to play
- Alabama would hold the lead for most of the half despite being unable to shake LSU, who kept it a two-possession game throughout
- The two teams tied eight times in the half before the Tigers gained a 66-64 advantage at 3:21 (66-64) off a layup from Days
- With 12 seconds remaining, Ellis was sent to the free throw line, making both shots to tie the score at 72-72 and force the game into overtime
- Ellis made 15 of Alabama's 34 points in the half, while also securing five boards and one steal
Overtime
- A three by Quinerly and a layup from Ellis gave UA a three-point lead with 1:31 to play
- However, a 6-0 spurt by LSU over the final 1:11, including going 4-of-4 from the charity stripe, would result in the three-point Tiger win
Up Next
- Alabama will play Thursday in the SEC Tournament with seed, opponent and tip off time set later Saturday night once all the league contests are final
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