No. 4 Alabama Used Defense Down the Stretch to Extinguish LSU

The Crimson Tide didn’t make a field goal over the last 7:20 of the contest — but that didn’t inhibit its performance and effort on the other side of the ball.

BATON ROUGE, La. — Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships.

That’s what they say.

The No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide is in the midst of a run at an SEC championship — and it needed its defense to take down the lowly LSU Tigers on Saturday afternoon in Baton Rouge.

“Definitely not one of our better wins,” head coach Nate Oats said. “Sometimes if you're competing for a league championship, you've got to go on the road and win games that aren't pretty. [...] Our defense was nowhere close to where we like it to be, but I thought late in the game we got some stops we needed to.”

Just a week after its worst defensive performance of the season in the 93-69 loss to Oklahoma, Alabama (20-3, 10-0 SEC) made huge plays on that side of the floor.

“It was great because I didn't think [in] the first 30 minutes we were that good on the defensive end,” Oats said. “It was ugly basketball there for a while, but I was proud of the way our guys played on the defensive end. They came up with some tough plays, got some tough rebounds. [...] We’re going to have to win some games on the defensive end. We found a way to win a tough road game.”

In the Crimson Tide’s 79-69 victory over the Tigers (12-11, 1-9 SEC), Alabama didn’t make a field goal attempt for the final 7:20 of the game.

Surely the Crimson Tide lost, right? Wrong.

Instead, Alabama locked in on the defensive end and allowed just six points in that stretch — securing its 10th conference win and staying undefeated in the SEC.

“Just keep grinding,” guard Nimari Burnett said. “Most importantly, getting stops. We feel like we should have been better on defense. We got stops when needed.”

“Just get stops,” guard Rylan Griffen said. “[Shots weren’t] falling at the end — so getting stops was how we were going to win the game.”

In the game as a whole, the Crimson Tide held LSU to just 31% from the field and 26% from deep. The Tigers scored 24 of their 69 points at the charity stripe.

Alabama will need to keep its effort high on the defensive end moving forward as it enters the home stretch of the regular season.

The Crimson Tide returns home to face off with the Florida Gators on Wednesday night in Tuscaloosa.

Tipoff at Coleman Coliseum is set for 8 p.m. CT on ESPN2.

See Also:

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