No. 4 Alabama wins Shootout against No. 14 Mississippi State

NCAA Basketball: Alabama in Mississippi StateJanuary 29, 2025; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide Guard Labaron Philon (0) drives to the curve towards the Mississippi State Bulldogs Guard Shawn Jones Jr. (5) During the first half of the Humphrey Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Wesley Hale-Misted Pictures

Chris Youngblood scored a season high 23 points on a career-best seven 3-Pointer to help No. 4 Alabama push an 88-84 win over No. 14 Mississippi State on Wednesday night in Starkville, Miss.

Mark Sears had 17 points and nine assists, and Grant Nelson registered 15 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots such as Crimson Tide (18-3, 7-1 Southeastern Conference) won for the 12th time in the last 13 games. Aden Holloway had 12 points for Alabama.

Josh Hubbard scored a career-best 38 points for Bulldogs (16-5, 4-4), losing for the fourth time in six games. All four losses came to team ranked as # 6 or better.

Hubbard made six 3-Pointers shy for his career best-in 15 attempts and were 14 of 28 overall from the field.

Keshawn Murphy added 18 points for Mississippi State, but he missed a late lineup that would have put the bulldogs in the lead.

Crimson Tide has defeated the Bulldogs seven even times and 10 of the last 11.

Nelson drained a wide open corner 3-Pointer to give Crimson Tide an 83-80 lead with 2:30 back in the game.

Alabama led by one when Nelson went to the free -throwing line with 24.5 seconds left and missed both free kicks. Mouhamed Diouubate rebound Miss for the Crimson Tide and was buried, and he missed the front end of a one-and-one with 22.6 seconds left.

It presented bulldogs with the chance to take the lead, but Murphy couldn’t connect to a layup attempt with just over 13 seconds left.

Youngblood made two free throw to give Alabama a three-point lead with 10.9 seconds to go.

Mississippi State’s chance that a binding shot also came empty when Riley Kugel’s attempt at transfer to Hubbard jumped off the latter and went out of the borders with 5.3 seconds left.

Nelson was buried without the time getting out of the clock and splitting two free throw to seal it.

Crimson Tide made 49.2 percent of their field target attempts, including 15 of 31 (48.4 percent) from the range of 3-point.

Bulldogs shot 50 percent from the field and made 8 out of 25 (32 percent) behind the arch.

A jumper of Sears gave Alabama a 59-50 lead with 14:17 back in the competition before Hubbard scored 11 points over a 15-5 race for Bulldogs.

Hubbard made two 3-Pointers and a two-point jumper under Burst before converting a three-point game to end it and giving Mississippi State a 65-64 lead with 10:14 back.

Hubbard later converted another three-point game to knot the scoring of 80 with 3:57 back.

Crimson Tide led 44-39 at the break. Hubbard scored 13 first half point for Mississippi State, and Youngblood had 12 in half for Alabama.

-Felt level media