NASHVILLE — The last time Mississippi State and Alabama matched up, it was the Crimson Tide who played from behind.
Despite a rowdy Crimson Tide crowd in Tuscaloosa, the Bulldogs led by seven points at half, but collapsed in the second half, losing by three points.
The two matched up again on Friday in the Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinals in Nashville, and this time, Mississippi State was ice cold, shooting 8-for-31 (25.8 percent) in the first half.
A slow start offensively was all No. 1 seeded Alabama needed to pounce and put the game out of reach in the first half as the Bulldogs’ SEC tournament run ended with a 72-49 loss at Bridgestone Arena.
“Tough day,” Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans said. “We’re best when we get off to a really good start and obviously. We didn’t. (Alabama) had great energy out of the locker room, (and) kind of punched us in the face.”
The Bulldogs’ (21-12) shot 31 percent from the field for the game and just 1-of-13 from beyond the arc.
Alabama (27-5) was carried by its 3-point shooting. Coming in taking nearly 30 3-pointers a game on average, the Crimson Tide started out 4-of-7, cooling down a bit after, but shooting 13-of-37 from the perimeter overall in the win.
“We haven’t been a great shooting team, especially from 3, all year long,” Jans said. “I was just always hoping that we would catch fire at some point and just change it. … Tonight, we struggled early finishing at the rim and their length, their rotations, they were on point. We had a hard time getting off clean looks.”
A 10-2 Crimson Tide run in the final 2:03 of the half ballooned the lead to 20 as the 3-ball came back to life.
Alabama went 4-of-6 from deep to close the half, including two from freshman Brandon Miller, who scored eight of his 11 first-half points in the final 3:30 of play. He finished with 18 points in the win.
Alabama’s lead never got bigger than 25 points in the second half, but once the Bulldogs got down, they couldn’t stop the bleeding.
“It was a lot,” senior Tolu Smith said postgame. “They got up early, got up fast and we were just clawing back the whole game. We just couldn’t convert.”
Smith, coming off a career day against Florida in Wednesday’s second-round win, was less effective in the paint against Alabama’s frontcourt pairing of sophomore Charles Bediako and freshman Noah Clowney.
The All-SEC First Team selection went scoreless from the field in the first half. Smith played much better in the second half, scoring 13 points with seven rebounds, finishing the game with a 17-point, 11-rebound double-double.
Senior Dashawn Davis led State with 11 points in the first half on 5-of-10 shooting, but outside of him, production was scarce. Davis finished with 13 points.
The loss makes it four-straight losses for the Bulldogs against the Crimson Tide dating back to Feb. 16, 2022.
Mississippi State now turns its attention to Selection Sunday as the NCAA tournament selection show begins at 5 p.m.
“I would personally say we have a really good resume,” Smith said. “I think we had some really good wins early in the season. We had a well-rounded season, but it’s not for me to decide. It’s for the guys on the panel. We’re just going to wait until Selection Sunday.”
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