The Crimson Tide were led by Chris Youngblood’s season-high 23 points
STARKVILLE, Miss. – For the third time this season, the No. 4/4 Alabama men's basketball team came away with a road win over an Associated Press top-15 opponent, defeating No. 14/13 Mississippi State 88-84, Wednesday night at Humphrey Coliseum. With the win, Alabama head coach
Nate Oats has tied Wimp Sanderson's record for most AP top-25 wins in program, capturing his 25thvictory.
Alabama's (18-3, 7-1 SEC)
Chris Youngblood put on a performance scoring a team-high 23 points, setting a new career-high with seven three-pointers while
Mark Sears recorded a game-high nine assists. The Crimson Tide's duo of Sears (12 points) and Youngblood (11 points) combined to score 23 of Alabama's 44 points in the second half.
Mississippi State (16-5, 4-4 SEC) was led by Josh Hubbard scoring a career-high 38 points, shooting 14-28 from the field.
Head Coach
"That was quite the game if you like big shot-making, this was a good game to be at. (Josh) Hubbard is pretty good and we didn't do a very good job on him, but he made some tough shots. I thought Chris (Youngblood) stepped up because he said let me take him and I thought he did the best job of anybody. He (Hubbard) went for 38 points so we have to do a better job, but we made some big plays elsewhere to make up for the fact that we didn't do a good job on Hubbard and we didn't shoot well from the free throw line. They are a tough team and have some of the toughest guys in the league in my opinion. I thought Cliff's (Omoruyi) block saved the game in my opinion because it would have put them up one point with under 30 seconds left. I thought a lot of guys made a lot of big plays and (
Mark Sears) had a great bounce back game. A lot of big plays and a huge road win over a really good team."