TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Alabama men’s basketball team played its 20th game of a 32-game regular season on Saturday night at Coleman Coliseum. Like most games, there was some good and bad.

The good: the fourth-ranked Crimson Tide beat LSU, 80-73. Alabama is now 17-3 overall, 6-1 in SEC play, has won three in a row, and is now 6-1 this month with a road trip against No. 14 Mississippi State up next (on Wednesday at 8 p.m. CT).

The bad: Mark Sears was held scoreless for the second time this season, and just the third time in his illustrious college career. Sears played just 17 minutes, all in the first half, and finished 0-for-5 shooting. He did not play at all in the second half.

“This is all I’m gonna say about playing time stuff,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said afterward. “We played the guys in the second half that we thought gave us the best chance to win the game, and we won the game.

“Our defense was significantly better in the second half than in the first half, and we haven’t done that much this year.”

There’s more, of course — both good and bad.

Good: Aden Holloway starred again, leading the Tide with 19 points behind a trio of 3-pointers. He put up 22 against Vanderbilt on Tuesday, and has now scored in double figures in eight of his last nine games. 

“Holloway puts so much pressure on your defense,” LSU coach Matt McMahon said afterward. “He’s one of the best shooters in the country. He doesn’t need much time or space.”

Bad: Derrion Reid did not play, again, missing his fourth consecutive game with a lower-body injury. Oats called Reid questionable when he met with the media on Friday, but ruled him out well before warmups on Saturday.

More good: Alabama’s bench, as a whole, played well again, scoring 44 points. Behind Holloway, Mo Dioubate scored 14 on 6-of-8 shooting to go with five rebounds. This came after the Tide’s bench scored 52 in a 103-87 win over Vandy on Tuesday. This team’s depth flashed this week. That’ll be important come March.

More bad: Alabama, as a whole, struggled maintaining possession again. The Tide turned the ball over 14 times on Saturday, which LSU turned into 17 points. Even more, the Tigers, now 12-7 overall and 1-5 in SEC play, killed Alabama on the offensive glass, finishing with a 17-11 offensive rebound advantage.

“That was obviously an issue,” Oats said. “That was a major issue, all the offensive boards they had. We gave up way too many.”

More good: Chris Youngblood made his first start as a member of the Alabama program and made good on the opportunity, finishing with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting, as well as five rebounds, two assists, and two blocks.

“It felt good,” Youngblood said afterward. “At first, my family thought I was gonna be mad about not starting this year, but this team is wonderful.”

More bad: Youngblood getting the start meant, yes, Labaron Philon came off the bench. Oats said pregame that Philon tweaked his ankle at practice this week. Still, with Sears not playing, Philon got plenty of minutes (23), and finished with 11 points, three boards, and three assists.

“Labaron has played great for us,” Oats said. “He was injured, couldn’t practice yesterday. But the bigger reason was, he’s been struggling a little bit lately … I thought he played pretty well. His attitude was great. We needed his play.

“CY, I talk to him and he’s like, ‘Coach, whatever you need.’ He doesn’t care if he starts or doesn’t. We’ve had a lot of good kids come through this program, and he’s at the top of the list. He just wants to impact winning. I thought he impacted winning tonight.”

Overall, this was a take-care-of-business-type of game for the Crimson Tide, and for the most part, they did the job. It wasn’t pretty, partly because of the Tide’s own mistakes, but also because LSU hit some tough shots. There were 8 ties and 13 lead changes before Alabama used an 8-0 run to pull away late.

“Thought we did a pretty good job defensively in the second half,” Oats said. “We gave up (1.176 points per possession) in the first half, then held them to (.846 points per possession) in the second half.

“We’ve been challenging these guys … we’ve got to get our offense better. It wasn’t great. But the thing we’ve been challenging our team about, defensive intensity in the second half, and I was super proud of the way they came out and guarded in the second half.”

And given some of the other results around the league this month — the entire league, save for Alabama and Auburn, already has two SEC losses before the end of January — a win is a win is a win some nights. Take them when you can get them.

Cody Goodwin covers the Alabama Crimson Tide for 247Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.