TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— No. 6 Alabama men’s basketball demolished No. 24 Mississippi State 111-73 at home on Tuesday night.

This victory gave the Crimson Tide the season sweep as it defeated the Bulldogs on the road in January. It also moved Alabama up to 26-5 and its new 12-3 record overtakes the No. 2 spot in the SEC following No. 3 Florida’s (11-4 SEC) loss to Georgia a bit after Alabama-Mississippi State tipped off.

There’s so much to dissect from this matchup at Coleman Coliseum. Here are three takeaways:

Backcourt Duo Splashes Mississippi State

Alabama has been the victim of rough starts over the past few games and it’s dictated the outcome in a couple of them. However, this was not the case against the Bulldogs as after creating a 19-9 lead midway through the first half, the Crimson Tide never looked back and only built on the margin.

Alabama’s backcourt duo of Mark Sears and Chris Youngblood combined for 28 of the Tide’s 53 points at halftime. Mississippi State as a whole had 27 at the break. Tide Hoops took its foot slightly off the pedal in the second period, mainly to chew the clock, but Youngblood’s 27 points on 7-for-11 from deep are a new Alabama career-high.

Youngblood’s previous best outing while with the Crimson Tide was also against Mississippi State as the offseason transfer scored 23 points on 7-for-10 from behind the arc. Safe to say he likes to face the Bulldogs.

Alabama finished the game shooting a jaw-dropping 22-for-45 from behind the arc (49 percent). Its 22 threes are the most in a single game since the Crimson Tide tallied 23 against LSU in 2021. In total, Sears and Youngblood combined for 48 points on 12 of 23 from long range. Absolutely spectacular shooting from the backcourt duo as Sears also dished 10 assists.

“When [Sears] was getting close to 10 [assists], he really wanted to make sure he got 10,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said during the postgame press conference. “C.Y., I was telling him, ‘You know who to find.’ So I don’t know if that assist to C.Y. was his 10th but it was either his ninth or his 10th because that came after we had the timeout where C.Y. said, ‘You know who to find.’

“He was happy C.Y. scored 27. We talk about ‘Mudita,’ I thought Sears was really happy for everybody else who was able to get in the scoring column, and he was able to get some assists. We definitely will show highlights of this.”

The shooting efforts helped set a new season high in points, marked the eighth time Alabama has scored at least 100 points and the eighth top-25 win of the season along with it being the largest margin of victory in SEC play.

Alabama Defense Doesn’t Earn Full Approval

Mississippi State guard Josh Hubbard finished the first game against Alabama with 38 points on 14-for-28 shooting, including 6-for-15 from behind the arc. He played in 36 of the game’s 40 minutes and 25 of his points came in the second half.

Alabama has really struggled throughout the season against the opposing team’s best player, and Hubbard had one of the best performances. However, last game against Kentucky guard Otega Oweh finished the game with two points on 1-for-9 from the field and even fouled out with just under seven minutes remaining in regulation. It was the first time he hadn’t scored in the double digits in the entire season.

There was a clear emphasis on pressuring Hubbard every time he had the ball in the first half on Tuesday night as he scored just six points in the opening period on 3-for-9 from the field, including 0-for-4 from downtown. Nevertheless, the Crimson Tide took its foot off the pedal in the second half as it was up by 38 points, and Hubbard finished with 21 points.

We didn’t want [Hubbard] to touch it as much as possible,” Oats said. “I mean, he torched us last time. He makes such tough shots. He’s going to get them up if he gets the ball. Shoot, he got 22 shots up tonight. He’s going to get them up if you let him touch the ball, so when he gives it up, don’t let him get it back. We tried to do a little bit more of that and tried to make him work for everything.”

Oats has been adamant throughout the season about playing just one game to practically perfection for a full 40 minutes. Oats explained during the postgame press conference that Alabama guard Labaron Philon’s “sense of urgency to get stops on Hubbard was really good,” but also that the Tide’s defensive intensity was lacking in the second half.

“I wasn’t happy with the defense in the second half,” Oats said. “We’ve only had one game that we had a better defense efficiency in the second half and that was the LSU one where we weren’t very good in the first half. We better be better in the second half. We weren’t better in the second half again today and you could use the excuse it’s hard to play with a lead. If you’re immature, it’s hard to play defense with a lead, hard.

“If you’re mature and it’s about getting stops and you’re not playing the scoreboard, you’re playing the guy across the line from you. You’re trying to dominate him every possession. You’re not giving up free looks. I was a little perturbed, especially in the group there in the end. I feel like they scored on us every possession to close the game out…We’ve got to get a little bit better sense of urgency when playing with a lead and we can’t do it.”

Alabama came into this game leading the nation in points per game with 90.8, but the Crimson Tide’s 80.4 points allowed ranks 354th of 364 teams in the field. Of course, Oats and company have had numerous impressive defensive performances throughout the season and Tuesday evening was a solid example of that for the most part. But besides this past Saturday’s Kentucky win plus the Georgia victory, we haven’t really seen a stout outing from the Crimson Tide from start to finish throughout SEC play.

Crimson Tide Bench Bullies Bulldogs

If the super-scoring of Sears and Youngblood, plus the defense of Philon and the rebounding of center Clifford Omoruyi (8) and Grant Nelson (7) weren’t enough, Alabama’s bench also had a stellar outing against the Bulldogs as the four players who were on the floor for at least 10 minutes scored at least seven points.

Among Alabama’s uninjured players, star sixth-man Aden Holloway came into this game with the Crimson Tide’s highest 3-point percentage at 41.9 percent on the season and over 47 percent in SEC play, which is good for second in the league. Oats has given the Auburn transfer the green light to take any open 3-point shot and wants him to shoot as many as possible. Holloway finished Tuesday night with 13 points (10 in the second half) shooting 3 of 7 from long range.

“They played some zone [defense] in the second half,” Oats said. “Zone tends to give up a lot of 3s and I think maybe the man [defense] wasn’t working. They went zone, or they were in foul trouble. Either way, I’m not sure why. Zone seemed to give up more 3s so that probably helped a little bit in the second half.”

Alabama forward Mouhamed Dioubate recorded his fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and a team-high 11 rebounds. Oats has constantly stressed the winning plays and massive impact that Dioubate makes and his aggression down low on Tuesday and also up top as he hit a three showed that.

Alabama forward Jarin Stevenson had one of his better games this season as he scored nine points. Each of these points came from behind the arc as he made all three of his attempts to add to the Crimson Tide’s 22 3s.

“Jarin needs catch-and-shoots,” Oats said. “Ever since we took him out of the starting lineup, he’s played more minutes than he was averaging before, and his minutes have been more efficient, which is what really matters.”

Alabama freshman forward Aiden Sherrell scored seven points to go along with three rebounds in 13 minutes of action. Sherrell was 2-for-5 from the field, including 1-for-4 from downtown. The former McDonald’s All-American seems to gain confidence every game.