When Alabama shifted gears and started running, LSU couldn’t keep……

January 29, 2024 Emmy Alabama 0

When Alabama shifted gears and started running, LSU couldn’t keep up with rising Tide

For 18 minutes of the first half Saturday night, the LSU basketball team went toe-to-toe with an Alabama team that has put up numbers at a frenetic pace this season.

When the Crimson Tide confidently rose up and buried four 3-point field goals in a row after opening the game with a miss, it looked like it was going to be one of those long nights for the Tigers.

If anyone thought Alabama was going to experience a letdown after a hard-fought 79-75 win over No. 8 Auburn three nights earlier on the same Coleman Coliseum floor, its answer in the first three minutes was a resounding no.

LSU, however, was undeterred and played Alabama on mostly-even terms until the final two minutes of the first half when the Crimson Tide, which was holding a slim 44-42 lead, decided to turn it up a notch or two.

In 62 seconds, they scored six points in a row to give the Tigers a tiny taste of what they’re capable of doing at any given moment.

That short spurt produced their largest lead of the night at 50-42 before Derek Fountain’s tip-in of a Jalen Cook miss with just 28 seconds left helped stop the bleeding — temporarily, anyway — for the Tigers.

“Both teams played at a really, really high level on the offensive side of the ball,” LSU coach Matt McMahon said of the first half. “There were very few turnovers, it was a tight game there. Then, the last three minutes, we had two turnovers that hurt us.”

Going into the final minute, Alabama had just three fastbreak points. That was unusually low for a team that ranked 28th nationally in scoring 14.7 points per game when they get out and hit the open floor in full stride.

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