Alabama basketball flexes its muscles in SEC Tournament bashing of Mississippi State

NASHVILLE ― The problems that have plagued Alabama basketball on the court the last few games of the regular season dissipated Friday.

Slow start? Nope.

Turnover problems? Not on this day with only seven.

Bad 3-point shooting? Not against Mississippi State. Alabama shot 35% from deep.

The rest and time off proved helpful ahead of the first game in the SEC Tournament for Alabama, which had a double bye. The Crimson Tide avoided many of its recent hurdles en route to a 72-49 win over the Bulldogs at Bridgestone Arena. Alabama has now beaten Mississippi State three times this season.

Alabama will face the winner of No. 4 seed Missouri and No. 5 seed Tennessee on Saturday (noon, ESPN).

Here are observations and takeaways from the SEC Tournament game between No. 1 seed Alabama (27-5) and No. 9 seed Mississippi State (21-12).

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Miller played well early and often, and he got his points. But the freshman from the Nashville suburb of Antioch did more than score for Alabama.

Miller got boards and assists at a high rate, too. He had five assists to go with 18 points and nine rebounds.

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Bediako celebrated his 21st birthday in a big way.

He was key in Alabama's strong start and second-half success.

Right away, he was making an impact as he forced a turnover, blocked a shot and had a dunk as the Crimson Tide took an early 7-0 lead. By the first timeout, he had two points, two rebounds and two blocks in four minutes.

He was frequently blocking Mississippi State shots. Bediako had five blocks as he scored 11 points and grabbed six boards.

Mississippi State meanwhile struggled to score. The Bulldogs shot 18-for-58 (31%) and 1-for-13 (8%) from deep.

Lineup change

For the first time since SEC play began in late December, Alabama had a different starting lineup.

Senior guard Jahvon Quinerly replaced Jaden Bradley. For the entire conference slate, the Crimson Tide had Bediako, Miller, Noah Clowney, Mark Sears and Bradley starting.

The decision to move Quinerly to the starting lineup proved to be a good one. Quinerly hit the first triple of the game to give Alabama an early lead at the first timeout. Then Bradley replaced him after the first timeout. But Quinerly still had a considerable presence in the first half. He scored eight points as he went 3-for-5 shooting and had two steals.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama basketball flexes muscles in SEC Tournament bashing of Mississippi State