Alabama basketball moved to 4-0 in SEC play on Tuesday, beating Missouri 93-75 at Coleman Coliseum. The Crimson Tide are now 12-5 overall on the season, heading into an SEC road trip at Tennessee on Saturday.
The game remained close for most of the way, before a late second-half run put UA too far ahead to catch. Here are three takeaways from Tuesday’s matchup, which dropped the Tigers to 0-4 in conference play.
Home-court advantage
Alabama made a few operational changes to Tuesday’s gameday experience at Coleman due to the winter weather impacting the area. The biggest one was seen inside the venue, where the student section had been expanded with unsold seats.
After the under-16 timeout in the first half, fans in the venue were told they could move closer to the court into whatever seats were vacant. The move had a huge effect on the atmosphere.
“For the weather out there tonight, I thought our home crowd was unbelievable,” head coach Nate Oats said after the game, which was his 200th win. “So I want to thank the students publicly. Think we had almost 3,000 students in there. We needed them, they got loud when we needed it.”
Alabama announced 11,569 fans for the Missouri game. They brought noise, especially at the conclusion of Red Panda’s halftime entertainment.
Rylan’s run
Alabama needed a spark in the second half. Missouri, a team that Oats noted in the days leading up the game is built to pull of upsets, was hanging with the Tide every step of the way.
Both teams needing a win, the game had been chippy, with one incident even escalating to Oats pushing Missouri’s Aidan Shaw, something he said he had apologized for after the game. Then, UA’s Rylan Griffen got going.
Griffen scored a career-high 21 points, tied for the team lead with Aaron Estrada. 16 of them came in the second half, a run that was crucial after Mark Sears tweaked his ankle and was affected for most of the game.
“That shooting barrage is probably the best shooting barrage I’ve seen out of anybody on our team this year,” Oats said. “As good as I’ve seen in a while.
Griffen finished 7-of-9 from the field, 5-of-7 from three-point range. He also grabbed five rebounds and collected three assists.
It’s chippy
Even without the incident where Oats pushed MU’s Aidan Shaw, the game was chippy and physical. Afterward, Missouri coach Dennis Gates was unhappy with the lack of fouls called on the Crimson Tide.
“Ultimately, our guys played hard, they played hard,” Gates said when asked what led to the chippiness. “And that’s what the flow of the game presented. Ultimately during those situations you would want the ball to bounce in your favor, get more baskets or more free throws, but that wasn’t the case. We came away with zero free throws in the first half, but it was a chippy game. You said that right? Right? You said that, correct? But we shot zero free throws In the first half.”
Alabama was called for two technical fouls throughout the game. Missouri was T’d up once.
Oats credited both teams seeing the game as a must-win for the testiness.
“I think a combination of us understanding we gotta protect our home court, it’s a must-win game for us if we’re gonna try to win this league, and they have a lot of pride over there and they weren’t trying to start 0-4,” Oats said. “Other than that there’s nothing between the programs. I actually really respect Dennis and think he does a great job. I don’t think our players had any past history with any of their guys, I just think it’s two teams playing hard.”
