Alabama started this game hot and just kept the fire going for the entire half. John Petty, always the long-range sharpshooter, fired four straight three-point shots without touching the edge as much as in the first three minutes of the game. Two of them were pure NBA material, making the shot from far outside the arc with a man right in his face. Petty felt it, and he was going to keep shooting.
First-years Josh Primo did not lag behind the much older senior, thus hitting three consecutive tries behind Petty, meaning that Alabama hit 6 in a row on their first 7 possessions and that the tide was only a few minutes ahead with 19 points. the game. To their credit, LSU made a number of very difficult shots throughout the half, although the tide defense forced a surge of early turnover, keeping the score between 20-25 points the rest of the half right.
After the endless hailstorm of long-range tries from Petty and Primo, Jahvon Quinnerly penetrated the action and quickly made three in a row his own, giving the Tide 40 points in just 10 minutes. For those who like rates, Alabama was on the verge of reaching 160 at that point.
They cooled down a bit in the last ten minutes of the half, only scored another 20 points. Do you remember the Anthony Grant days when it was a good offensive day when the Tide was 30 in the first half? What time was it not?
Petty and Primo added three more tries as the game became much more enjoyable in the final minutes of the half. Steals, loose balls and errors abound while the two teams scrape for each ball.
The Tigers did hit a nearly half-court buzz to score the 32 points, dropping Alabama’s lead to just under double.
Rather than letting the interruption of halftime cool their rhythm, Alabama comes out with just as much deep precision in the second half. Klein, Primo and even Herb Jones got some early tries in the first four minutes. Primo also added some highlights in the paint. Quinnerly closed things out with another pack of three-in-a-row tries, giving the Gety a 43-point lead, and the Tide began working in the bench for the last ten minutes, while the Tide scored score of 105. and LSU hampered their path to 75 meaningless points.
Petty, Primo and Quinnerly split the spotlight evenly for the Tide tonight, getting 24, 22 and 22 points. The three are combined to reach 20/25 of three points, and you’ll just never lose a game with that kind of sharp shooting.
Josh Primo in particular has had his best outing so far in his freshman season, with as many as three points as he added a number of beautiful plays to the paint and moved the ball. Meanwhile, Petty was a big presence in the defense and he added three teammates.
Herb Jones was his usual self, with 13 points, 5 assists and a steal. He had the task of going man-to-man with LSU star Trendon Watford the entire match, and did an admiral job. Watford scored just 11 points while shooting at 4/11 and passing several times.
Jaden Shackelford turned in a dismal performance, however. Although he did not shoot from the depths and had only 6 points, he was the Tide’s most effective player to manage the basket the entire game and he added 8 assistants to the team. His efforts there actually lead the Tide with +/- stats.
In terms of effort, James Rojas led the team in both setbacks and blocks, despite playing only 13 minutes because he took an elbow to the nose and picked up a few errors.
Darius Miles and Keon Ambrose-Hylton both got considerable playing time in the final quarter of the game and showed good things. Miles has a very instinctive ability to catch a ball and give it a quick go in traffic, while Ambrose-Hylton has the go-go gadget arms that teammates want to give him the chance to give it a go at every play lower.
Look, if you hit 23/43 three-point shots (with the most misses from the backup after the game was at hand), you are not going to lose regularly. Alabama consistently scored 3 points per minute for three quarters until they sat down on the bench, and even a talented shooting team like LSU could not keep up.
While that kind of shooting success will not be sustainable, the other aspects of this evening are absolutely not. In attack, Alabama constantly had the LSU defenders a few feet behind at every pass, and so they just kept moving the ball until they got open looks … Then converted.
Defensively, they made a tremendous effort. Nearly every LSU point was hotly contested and disputed, and the Tide stole a number early on to put them ahead so quickly.
The sheer effort and constant intensity is something we have very rarely seen in a basketball team in Alabama. At no point was there a 5 minute slump … Even the bench and pedestrians kept trying until the last buzz.
This is winning basketball, which is why Alabama insists on being a top-15 team and currently a projected # 3 series.