Alabama's Second-Half Surge Beats Ole Miss 93-74 in Oxford

Latrell Wrightsell Jr. hit seven 3-pointers and finished with 21 points as Alabama turned a tight first half into a 93-74 win over Ole Miss at the SJB Pavilion in Oxford on Feb. 11. The Crimson Tide outscored the Rebels 61-44 in the second half and led by as many as 22 en route to the 19-point victory.

The loss dropped Ole Miss to 11-13 overall and 3-8 in SEC play while Alabama improved to 17-7, 7-4 in the league. The Feb. 11 defeat was Ole Miss’ sixth straight loss as of that night; The Daily Mississippian later reported a Feb. 15 loss to Mississippi State pushed the skid to seven games. The Rebels were playing their first home game since Jan. 20 after winter weather forced a Jan. 31 matchup with Vanderbilt to be moved to Nashville.

Oxford opened with early scoring runs: Ole Miss went up 5-0, then Alabama answered with a 6-0 spurt inside the first three minutes. For the next 12 minutes and 43 seconds the game was mostly defensive; Ole Miss held the Tide to 32 points in the first half and limited Alabama to 25.0 percent shooting from the field, the low mark for the Tide in a first half this season. Ole Miss led 20-15 with 5:15 remaining before Corey Chest’s alley-oop dunk at 4:30 snapped a near five-minute scoring drought. Both teams combined for 19 points in the final 3:26, and Alabama took a 32-30 lead at the break after Zach Day blocked a last-second attempt.

Eduardo Klafke opened the second half with a midrange jumper to tie the game, but Alabama seized control quickly. The Tide pushed ahead to 51-38 with 13:38 to play and rode a second-half barrage of triples, nearly 55 percent from three in the second half, according to game reporting, to expand the margin. Five Alabama players finished in double figures; Labaron Philon scored 18 and Aiden Sherrell added 15 as the Tide’s depth complemented Wrightsell’s perimeter night.

Ole Miss received a 27-point game from senior guard AJ Storr, a season-high-tying effort, while Klafke finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, narrowly missing his first career double-double. Malik Dia logged two points in eight minutes, and senior guard Kezza Giffa did not play after a medical procedure, with his status listed as week-to-week. The Rebels attempted just 13 free throws compared with Alabama’s 26 attempts, a disparity noted in postgame accounts.

Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard addressed the collapse in the final minutes, saying, “It was a 10-point game (with) about seven minutes left. It kind of ballooned on us late. I don’t think the final score is really indicative of what happened in the game tonight. Really tough to guard their ability to shoot the 3 and kind of spread us out,” and, “Our defense not only didn’t do a good job defending the 3 tonight, we just couldn’t force turnovers as well.” He added, “I think from my naked eye, you’d have to give us some credit for their 3-point percentage in the first half, because I thought we were rotating. We were flying around,” and, “In the second half, I did not see the closeouts and the rotations. … Give Alabama a lot of credit. It was a good game plan tonight.”

Game officials were Joe Lindsay, Bart Lenox and Olandis Poole, and the game aired on the SEC Network. Box-score splits showed Alabama 32/61 for a 93 total and Ole Miss 30/44 for a 74 total. The Daily Mississippian reported Alabama finished 39 percent from the floor, 38 percent from three and 92 percent from the free-throw line for the game. Action photos and team images from the Feb. 11 matchup captured the Klafke altercation late in the first half and fan reaction after Klafke lifted the ball above his head to applause.

Ole Miss returns to the SJB Pavilion to host Mississippi State on Saturday, Feb. 14 at 5:30 p.m., with that game scheduled for ESPN2.