Alabama just could not miss.
Like a kind of feverish dream of a basketball game, the Crimson Tide’s first game as a ranking team was frankly outrageous.
A 105-75 win over LSU was the eighth in a row thanks to an unconscious first half that defied logic and never really ended. Alabama broke its own SEC record for three points by 23 and came some short of the NCAA point of 28.
Alabama (12-3, 7-0 SEC) has now equaled the longest winning streak since 2002 while taking a two-game lead in the SEC leaderboard. The 105 points correspond to a Nate Oats era, after winning a victory in Georgia last year.
It did so in a dizzying way on a night that took the lead in the second half 43. First-years Darius Miles broke the record 3 by 3:00 to play on a night that made the Tide 23 of 43 from deep. That’s a staggering 53.5% to surpass the record he set at Auburn last year. The Tide needed 59 attempts to break the previous record of 22 last year or 37.2%.
They did so without one of his best shooters making a single hit. Jaden Shackelford was 0-for-3 from deep, but led the team into a plus-minus on the state sheet.
John Petty covered for him. The senior was the star who made his first seven 3-point attempts early and finished 8-for-10 from long range.
“If you shoot the ball so well, it feels just like another day in the gym, another day in the lab shooting,” Petty said. “When I feel like that in a zone, I feel like I’m alone in the gym.”
An ensemble cast has joined from there to reach the 100-point mark for the first time this season.
Petty had 21 of his 24 in the first half when Alabama led by as much as 31 before halftime against an LSU team that won four straight before Tuesday night.
“I was a little worried about going to the game, we were going to be a little big-headed or whatever,” Oats said afterward.
It was actually the opposite.
The tide no. 18 shot and never really slowed down. That made six of his first seven from behind the arc to take an 18-4 lead. It eventually became a 17-0 run powered by Petty, and then freshmen Josh Primo and point guard Jahvon Quinerly.
The lead hit 20 with the second TV timeout and was 23 after Petty hit his sixth consecutive try before others got involved. Herbert Jones added 13.
Primo made his first five of deep, while Quinerly connected his first three. Both joined Petty north of 20, while both scored 22.
The shooting barrier was not something Oats experienced as a coach.
‘We’re playing for first place in the SEC and come up with several guys who shoot it that way? No, I’ve never … it was crazy, ‘he said.
Alabama, with a 60-32 lead at halftime, made 14 of 19 from the perimeter. That lead swelled to 89-46 as the hot shot continued after halftime. Quinerly went 3-for-3 from deep to help push the lead to his 43-point peek.
The early arrival of run-up minutes was the only thing slowing down the offensive outburst that hit the 100-point mark with 3:17 left. Oats were not too excited about how the 30-point win ended.
“I was a little disappointed with how we closed the game in the last eight minutes (minutes),” Oats said. ‘We’re going to clean up this game. There may not be too many cleanups, but we will clean up. … Once we think there is nothing more to improve, you go backwards. ‘
Alabama plays host to the Mississippi States (9-6, 4-3 SEC) at 5:00 p.m. CT on Saturday with a chance to level the 2002-03 team’s finish line.
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Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or to Facebook.