#2 Alabama and #15 Ole Miss faced off in a quarterfinal battle in Nashville at the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament on Friday.
Ole Miss has been a consistent underdog in the tournament thus far, beating #10 Texas and #7 Georgia in the First and Second rounds respectively. Alabama came into this game off a 96-84 win against Auburn on March 7. The last time these two teams met was in February, when Alabama beat Ole Miss 93-74.
Ole Miss struck first with a 3-pointer and Alabama struggled to respond, leading Ole Miss to a 6-0 scoring run. Aden Holloway got the answer for the Tide, making a 3-pointer, and followed up with a second on Alabama’s next possession.
Alabama looked messy to start and struggled to get their footing, allowing Ole Miss to get up 12-6 in the first 5 minutes. Ole Miss could not seem to miss a shot, which was a stark contrast to the Tide who can’t seem to put a shot up.
After a timeout, Alabama was able to bring it back up to tie the game at 14-14 with 13:24 left in the first half. The Crimson Tide’s usual stars of the show were facing more difficult challenges than usual tonight.
“They were doing a great job switching out and putting length on our guards, making it tough to make kick out, tough rim finishes,” Holloway said. “I would just give them a lot of credit to them just how they came on the defensive end.”
Alabama was playing a very fast-paced game, but couldn’t seem to keep up with their own pace, worn out very early on.
The Tide needed to wear Ole Miss out in the last 4 minutes of the half in an attempt to get back in the game after trailing 41-30.
The second half opened the exact same way the first did, Ole Miss put up a 3-pointer immediately, but this time the Tide had a quick response. Philon was up to the line after an early foul, and went 1-1 at the line, which was not what the Tide needed, making the score 54-46.
Alabama seems to be sprinting towards the end of the game, forcing Ole Miss to play at their speed. Unfortunately for the Tide, Ole Miss seemed to be matching it, if not speeding it up.
With 13 minutes left in the second half, Alabama still had yet to have a lead in this game.
The key to the Crimson Tide’s gameplay for the last 9 minutes should’ve be easy: slow down and catch up while inching back to get ahead.
With a lob from Philon, Bol Bowen went up for the dunk, making the score 66-62 Ole Miss and brought some energy back into Bridgestone Arena for Tide fans.
Just as the Tide started to close in, Ole Miss had an answer for everything they put up. Ole Miss was up 73-68 with 5 minutes left in the half.
The Tide was able to close the gap within three points with 3 minutes left, but Ole Miss widened it once again and was up 80-77 with 34 seconds left in the game.
With 0.5 seconds left in the game, Alabama was down by 1 with the ball. When the final shot went up, it hit the rim and fell out, ending in a heartbreaker for the Crimson Tide.
After the game, Coach Nate Oats said he underplayed just how good Ole Miss was to his guys, especially because Ole Miss is playing to keep their season alive and get the bid to the Tournament.
“You guys can look at the records, the stats, we played them once. Maybe I needed to do a better analytical breakdown, show them how much better they were playing,” Oats said. “I mean they just beat Oklahoma and Georgia.”
Overall, Alabama seems to have a solid offense, but their Achilles heel tonight was the lack of effort and preparation. Coach Oats said that if the effort from Friday’s game continues, the team will be a one-and-done team in the NCAA Tournament.
