NASHVILLE – Playing as the team to beat in the Southeastern Conference men’s basketball tournament for the first time since 2002, Alabama seemed intent on proving its worth – early, quickly and effectively.
Jahvon Quinerly scored 14 points off the bench, Jaden Shackelford added 13, and the sixth-ranked, top-seeded Crimson Tide blew out Mississippi State 85-48 on Friday in the first of four quarterfinals at Bridgestone Arena.
Alabama (22-6) will face fourth-seeded Tennessee (18-7) – a 78-66 winner over fifth-seeded Florida in the second quarterfinal – in a semifinal at 1 p.m. Saturday, with ESPN televising the game.
Competing for the first time since closing the regular season with a 10-point win at Georgia last Saturday, the Tide followed a couple of small early runs against ninth-seeded Mississippi State with a 17-0 surge covering nearly five minutes for a 43-13 cushion just before halftime. Alabama’s defense swarmed Mississippi State (15-14), with the Tide scoring 24 points off 14 first-half turnovers and holding the Bulldogs to 30% shooting overall.
“Defensively, I thought we were really locked in for a good part of that game,” said Alabama coach Nate Oats, who in his second season in Tuscaloosa led the program to its first SEC regular-season title in 19 years.
The Tide most recently won the league tourney in 1991, when they did so for the third straight time and fourth time in five years.
Alabama won its lone meeting with Tennessee during the regular season, 71-63 in Knoxville on Jan. 2, when the Volunteers were ranked seventh and unbeaten and the Tide were unranked.
As expected of the nation’s No. 2 perimeter-shooting team, the Tide’s explosive attack was propelled by 3-point shooting, with Shackelford and John Petty Jr. leading the way as Alabama totaled 13 makes from outside the arc. Shackelford was 3-of-6 from deep, where Petty was 3-of-7 – including consecutive left-corner jumpers during the big run – for his nine points.
Quinerly shot 6-of-8 from the field with two 3s, and SEC player of the year Herbert Jones had eight points, seven rebounds, seven assists, three steals and two blocks in 17 minutes. Juwan Gary made all four of his shots for 11 points as the Tide’s bench routed the Bulldogs’ reserves 47-5.
Alabama shot 49% in winning its fourth consecutive game and third this season over the Bulldogs, with the regular-season games decided by a combined 13 points.
Not bad, considering the early wakeup call and tipoff.
“There was a lot of questions about us coming out in these early games,” Petty said. “Previously we didn’t really do too good. But I feel like our guys did a great job getting up this morning, getting real locked in, and it showed out there on the court.”
Iverson Molinar scored 18 points, Tolu Smith had 11 and Abdul Ado grabbed 11 rebounds for the Bulldogs, who had advanced to Friday’s round with a one-point win against eighth-seeded Kentucky. Mississippi State outrebounded the Tide 43-35 but couldn’t get going from long range and committed 18 turnovers.
The Tide had 20 assists and committed just nine turnovers.
The loss was especially hard to accept for coach Ben Howland after his team kept pace with Alabama in the previous two meetings.
“To get beat this badly was really, really a bitter pill,” he said. “We were 1-of-19 from the 3-point line, and you’re not going to win many games doing that.”
Arkansas 70, Missouri 64: JD Notae came off the bench to score a season-high 27 points, and the eighth-ranked, second-seeded Razorbacks overcame a 10-point deficit to top the seventh-seeded Tigers, earn their 12th straight win against an SEC foe and advance to the tourney semifinals Saturday.
The Razorbacks (22-5) are among the final four teams remaining in the league bracket for the fourth time since 2015. Their semifinal will follow the Alabama-Tennessee matchup and will be against third-seeded LSU (17-8).
Justin Smith scored 16 points before fouling out for Arkansas, and Davonte Davis added 11.
Missouri (16-9) headed home having failed to reach the semifinals at this tournament since joining the SEC for the 2012-13 season, with this the Tigers’ fourth loss in the quarterfinals.
Xavier Pinson scored 14 points and Dru Smith added 11 for the Tigers, who led for much of the first half and were up 23-13 with 9:18 left before the break. Missouri’s last lead was 49-47 with 9:32 left in the game.
LSU 76, Ole Miss 73: Trendon Watford scored 24 points, including a key tip with 23 seconds remaining, Cameron Thomas added two late free throws for 18 points the Tigers held off the sixth-seeded Rebels (16-11) to wrap up the quarterfinals Friday night.
LSU appeared to take control with a 40-29 lead early in the second half before Ole Miss rallied with a 22-6 surge over 6:19 for a five-point lead. The Tigers responded with a 19-7 run featuring two 3-pointers by Thomas, including the go-ahead shot with 6:51 left.
LSU led 69-63 before the Rebels rallied within a point on Devontae Shuler’s 3 with 1:17 remaining. Darius Days, who scored 20 points, answered with a big 3 followed by Watford’s basket to make it 74-68, which proved critical when Jarkel Joiner hit a 3 to cut the lead in half.
Joiner then fouled Cameron Thomas, who made both free throws to seal LSU’s hard-fought victory, the 1,600th in program history. The Tigers followed a 1-of-6 start from long range to make six of their final 14 shots outside the arc. They also made 9 of 10 free throws after a 2-of-6 start.
Joiner scored 21 of his 26 points after halftime for the Rebels, who had sought their fourth consecutive victory and were trying to avenge a 75-61 loss to the Tigers on Jan. 9. Romello White added 20 points for Ole Miss, which won the rebounding battle 42-37 but allowed LSU to shoot 52% in the second half.