TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 4 Alabama fell for the first time in conference play this season to Ole Miss, 74-64.
After going back and forth for the first 30 minutes of the game, Ole Miss took advantage of an Alabama scoring drought with a 10-2 run with 10 minutes left in the game. The Rebels’ lead ballooned to 10 and Ole Miss maintained their lead for the rest of the game.
While Alabama fought back in the final minutes and got the deficit down to as low as five points, the offensive mistakes were too much for the Crimson Tide to overcome.
Alabama head coach Nate Oats showed disappointment in the team’s preparation for Ole Miss, “They came ready on the road and we did not come ready. We got to figure out how to do a better job of making sure guys are ready to go,” Oats said.
The story of the game was the turnovers. Alabama had issues with turnovers all night. The Crimson Tide turned over the ball 11 times in the first half and another 10 times in the second half, preventing Alabama from generating offensive opportunities. Alabama lost the turnover battle 21-7 to the Rebels. The -14 turnover margin led to Ole Miss getting 23 more shot opportunities than the Crimson Tide did.
“Our first 10 possessions, we had seven turnovers. This defense turns people over, and we did not have our guys ready to go,” Oats said.
Rebounding also led to Alabama surrendering many more shot attempts than the Crimson Tide shot. Although Alabama won the rebounding battle 39-37, 35 of its 39 rebounds were defensive rebounds while just four of the rebounds were on the offensive end, which gave the Crimson Tide just four second chance points.
“Not one of our better nights. You got to go in and crash the glass, I feel like we left a little bit on the table with that,” Alabama forward Jarin Stevenson said on the lack of offensive rebounds.
Oats felt that the most disappointing part of the night was the lack of offensive rebounds. The Crimson Tide entered Tuesday averaging 15 offensive rebounds per game.
“I don’t know if guys didn’t realize that’s what’s been keeping our offense going. Our offense hasn’t been great this year, but the offensive rebounding rates have been really saving us. To go from 23 offensive rebounds last game to three, you cannot expect to win,” Oats said.
Despite the giveaways, the Alabama defense did all it could do on limiting Ole Miss from capitalizing off the Crimson Tide’s mistakes, holding the Rebels to just 19 points off turnovers. Alabama held Ole Miss to 38% shooting for the game and just 6-for-21 from 3-point range.
It was the Crimson Tide’s shooting performance that held itself back from taking advantage of the Ole Miss shooting performance. Alabama’s 64 points were a season-low for the Crimson Tide after it came into Tuesday night averaging 91 points per game.
While Alabama shot 42% during the game, the Crimson Tide shot just 25% from beyond the arc, shooting 5-for-20. Alabama hit 19 of its 26 free throw attempts, but missed the front end of two different 1-and-1’s in its attempts to come back down double digits.
Alabama point guard Mark Sears was held to just 11 points on 2-for-8 shooting and freshman guard Labaron Philon shot a season-worst 0-for-8 as he recorded just one point in the game. The bright spot for Alabama from the offensive end was guard Aden Holloway. Holloway scored a team-high 15 points on 5-for-6 shooting.
“I feel like Ole Miss did a great job of guarding,” Holloway said of Alabama’s offensive struggles. “They were very disciplined and they played hard and they executed very well.”
Up next, Alabama will go back on the road as the Crimson Tide will travel to Lexington, Kentucky for another date against a AP Top-10 team in the No. 8 Kentucky Wildcats. Alabama lost its most recent trip to Rupp Arena last season 117-95. The Crimson Tide and Wildcats will tip off at 11 a.m. CT Saturday.
