Men’s Basketball Outlasts Mississippi State, 55-51

The Alabama men’s basketball team held off a late rally and secured a 55-51 victory over SEC rival Mississippi Staten on Tuesday night inside Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, Miss. The Tide has now won five consecutive games over the Bulldogs in the series for the first time since 1985-87.

Sophomore forward Shannon Hale continued his string of strong performances, as he finished with a team-leading 14 points. Senior guard Levi Randolph added 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds and three assists.

Alabama (15-9, 5-6 SEC) built a seven-point lead late in the first half after going on an 11-1 run midway through the period. Mississippi State made two of their final 13 shots and had 11 turnovers in the half. Alabama recorded seven steals and put up 13 points off of Bulldog turnovers on its way to a 25-21 lead to the locker room.

The Tide struggled to get things going in the second half against the Mississippi State zone defense, scoring just seven points in the opening 9:09 of the final 20 minutes. As a result, the Bulldogs would rally and eventually took a 34-32 lead with 10:51 left in the half.

However, Alabama would answer with a run of its own. With the score tied at 38-38, Alabama went on an 11-3 run over the next five minutes to take its largest lead of the night, 49-41, with 3:18 remaining in the contest.

Alabama held an eight point lead, 52-44, with a minute left and seemed to have the game in hand, but the Bulldogs would not go away. Mississippi State forced back-to-back turnovers in a span of just 16 seconds to cut the lead to four points, 52-48, with 44 seconds remaining.

Mississippi State eventually closed to within three, 54-51, with 4.8 seconds but Randolph sealed the victory with a free throw to result in the final score.

The Tide was once again without their second-leading scorer, Ricky Tarrant, who missed his fourth consecutive game, while Retin Obasohan also was sidelined for a second straight contest. In addition, Grant said in the postgame that Michael Kessens was playing with an ankle injury, while senior guard Rodney Cooper was diagnosed with the flu on Tuesday morning, but managed to play 34 minutes and finished with nine points in the victory.

Gavin Ware and Craig Sword led the Bulldogs with 13 points each. Ware also led the team with eight rebounds.

Up next for Alabama is the lone home game in this current four-game stretch, as the Tide returns to Coleman Coliseum on Saturday night to host the Vanderbilt Commodores. The game will tipoff at 7 p.m. CT and will air on ESPNU.