Nothing free for Bulldogs in a loss to Crimson Tide

As free throw after free throw from Tolu Smith and Mississippi State clanged off the iron, No. 8 Alabama was able to take advantage.

The Crimson Tide was playing inside a hostile Humphrey Coliseum as Bulldog fans packed the arena for the first sellout in four years, but it was Alabama that played in control and the No. 21 Bulldogs were the team that was rattled.

There were 12 missed free throws from Smith that negated some early foul trouble from the Tide and the visitors were able to pull away late in the game to claim a 78-67 win that moved Alabama to 11-2 for the season.

“I can talk about this because I know what kind of man he is, but the elephant in the room – Tolu Smith missed 12 of our 18 (free throws),” MSU coach Chris Jans said. “He's been shooting them so well. He struggled out of the gate, but if you look game-bygame, he was much better the last few games than he was the first four or five games. I'm not sure what happened ( Wednesday).”

Free-throw shooting was just part of the problems for State in the loss. The Crimson Tide held the Bulldogs to just 11 made field goals inside 3-point range and the All-Southeastern Conference center Smith had five points on 1 of 7 shooting and an abysmal 3 of 15 from the freethrow line in 23 minutes.

Those missed free throws separated what was a relatively close game in the first half. State missed 11 from the foul stripe in the first half with Smith going 2 for 10 but the Bulldogs were down just four points at 34-30.

Despite being in foul trouble, Alabama managed to build on that lead in the second half as the Crimson Tide (11-2, 1-0 SEC) extended things out by as much as 17 points. True freshman Brandon Miller was one of those players in foul trouble most of the game but made his presence known. Miller scored 19 points on 5 of 10 shooting from 3-point range and 11 rebounds in 30 minutes of action.

“I'm proud of the team,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “Road wins are not easy to get in this league as evidence of some games ( Wednesday). We went on the road against a top 25 team and were able to come out with a pretty convincing win. I think it speaks to what our guys were able to do, especially on the defensive end.”

Mark Sears led the way for the Tide with his 20 points making four 3-pointers. Noah Clowney had 12 points and Nick Pringle finished with 10 points on a perfect 4 of 4 shooting.

MSU shot 36% from the field and 38% from 3-point range, but it was the freethrow line where the Bulldogs hurt themselves the most. State was 18 of 36 from the charity stripe. Alabama won the rebounds 41-38 and overcame 19 turnovers.

“We had 19 turnovers which was obviously not very good, but I thought we were able to overcome them,” Oats said. “(MSU) really hang their hat on how hard they play and how they rebound. For us to out-rebound them, I thought our defense was better than theirs. I was proud of our guys.”

In defeat, D.J. Jeffries led the Bulldogs (11-2, 0-1 SEC) with 11 points and a gamehigh 15 rebounds. KeShawn Murphy had 11 points and Will McNair 10 points off the bench.

State now tries to regroup after experiencing the first two losses of the season and in back-to-back games. After losing to Drake, MSU dropped its first SEC game and now has to travel to Tennessee on Tuesday.

It's pretty simple for Jans – the Bulldogs just have to be a better team than it is currently.

“We've got to play better,” Jans said. “The first thing that I told the team is that they played better than us. They deserved to win. We're going to watch the video, try to learn and grow, show them what we did well and didn't do well. We've got to move on. We are who we are and it's probably not going to change a whole lot.”