Nate Oats took his surging basketball team on the road to LSU tonight and brought home a 90-83 victory.

The game got off to a slow start. Midway through the first half the score showed a 14-13 snoozefest, and that’s exactly what it was. Both offenses woke up a bit from there, however, and Alabama ended up taking a 43-40 lead into the locker room. LSU was in the game due to a scorching 50% on 14 three point attempts, a surprising number since the Tigers came into the game as the worst three-point shooting team in the SEC at 32%.

LSU also won the rebounding battle in the first half 19-14. Alabama shot the ball quite well in its own right at 50% overall, 38% from three and a perfect 14-14 from the line. It was a rough first half for Labaron Philon, but Aden Holloway picked him up with 10 points and three assists. Amari Allen added seven points and three rebounds.

Alabama was able to create some distance on the scoreboard coming out of the locker room, mostly thanks to three quick ones from outside the arc courtesy of Aiden Sherrell, Allen and Holloway. The Tide took a 60-49 lead into the first media timeout of the second half. A three from Latrell Wrightsell Jr. pushed it out to 14, and that’s where things stood at the 12-minute timeout.

The game turned into something of a free-throw fest for the next few minutes with several players getting into foul trouble. One of those was Sherrell, who fouled out at the six-minute mark with Alabama up 74-61. Aiden made quite a mark on the game before he left with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and four blocks. LSU put a little run together at that point to pull within eight at 78-70 headed into the final media timeout of the night. Aden Holloway went to the bench with his fourth personal shortly before the break.

Wrightsell made a pair out of the timeout to again stake Alabama to a double digit advantage. LSU briefly closed the lead to six after a five-point possession that ended with a three-pointer off of an offensive rebound, but an Allen drive pushed the lead back out to eight with two minutes left. Houston Mallette then grabbed two key offensive boards, calling timeout as his momentum carried him out of bounds with the second one. London Jemison then got a put-back to push the lead back out to ten.

LSU kept battling, but Alabama was able to keep them at bay and get the job done.

Next up is Mississippi State on Tuesday night. The Tide handled the Bulldogs pretty easily in the first matchup.

Alabama baseball’s series against Rhode Island will conclude on Saturday, Feb. 21, instead of Sunday as planned.

UA athletics announced on Saturday morning that the Crimson Tide would play in a double-header due to expected inclement weather on Feb. 22.

Alabama (5-1) picked up a win in game one of the series, run ruling Rhode Island 19-4.

The game will begin at the originally slated time of 2 p.m. CT.

Rhode Island has yet to earn a win in the 2026 season and is currently 0-5.

Zane Adams will pitch game two for the Crimson Tide and freshman Myles Upchurch will start game three.

SEC Network+ will still stream the competition between Alabama and Rhode Island.

Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for The Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at esmarr@usatodayco.com.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama baseball coach Rob Vaughn was open about his dissatisfaction with the team’s performance in the 2-1 win over Alabama State on Wednesday. The message was heard, as the Crimson Tide put forth a complete offensive performance, headlined by two Justin Lebron home runs, en route to a 19-4 win.

“Just a relentless approach offensively,” Vaughn said. “I think Lebron’s homer in the first let everybody breathe a little. Once he did that, it was like alright, here we go.”

Lebron’s aforementioned first-inning blast traveled 417 feet, the furthest of the season for the team. Andrew Purdy added an RBI single later in the inning, setting the tone for a dominant offensive afternoon.

“We have a standard here. It’s just like what everyone talks about with Coach Saban. We want to do things a certain way here,” Neal said. “Point blank, we didn’t do it. It was plain and simple. We did not play good, we did not run off tough at-bats, we did not play very good defense. We scored on two runs that they pretty much gave us if we’re being honest. That’s not what we’re about.”

Neal hit his first home run of the season in the third inning. By that point, the Crimson Tide had already held a 12-0 lead and was off to the races. It’s a sharp turnaround for an offense that had been up-and-down at best through the first five games of the season, scoring four runs in the season-opening loss to Washington State, three in Tuesday’s road win over Samford, and two in the Alabama State game. He believes a lot of the issues came down to a lack of focus from the team.

“No offense, but we’ve got a lot of talented guys. When we chase a 70 mile per hour breaking ball in the dirt, it’s focus,” Neal said. “It’s not ‘you’re not talented enough,’ it’s just ‘you’re not focused on what you’re trying to do.’ That’s just when you have to, from experience, say, ‘Okay, I’ve got to reel it in, we’ve got to move on, attack the next pitch.’ I think we handled that tonight.”

Neal has been one of the team’s best hitters to start the season. He moved up to third in the lineup today for the Crimson Tide and delivered, going 3-3 on the day and driving in another run with a sacrifice fly. He has also been one of the leaders in the clubhouse for the team throughout the early struggles.

With the 1-0 series lead and a dominant offensive showing under its belt, Alabama now has to show that it can display consistency on the diamond.

“At 2:00 tomorrow, it’s 0-0 again. None of this matters,” Vaughn said. “Can we keep that same edge? It’s easy to have that edge coming off a tougher game on Wednesday, but when you do have success, learning to handle that success and still showing up with that same edge is going to be vital.”

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