Sears, Wrightsell Jr. lead No. 16 Alabama past LSU, 109-92
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Mark Sears scored 23 points and No. 16 Alabama made a handful of deep shots to break open a tight game in the final nine minutes of a 109-92 victory over LSU on Saturday.
Latrell Wrightsell Jr. had a season-high 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Alabama (17-7, 9-2 SEC), which trailed 73-72 after LSU (12-11, 4-6) had briefly surged in front with a 16-4 run.
But Rylan Griffen’s free throws and dunk ignited a 13-2 Alabama spurt that put the Crimson Tide back up by 10, and LSU never responded after that.
Nick Pringle scored a season-high 17 and and Griffen added 16 points for the Tide, which came in looking to bounce back from a loss to No. 12 Auburn on Wednesday.
Wrightsell hit six times from 3-point range. Sears and Griffin each hit four times from deep. Alabama also got 15 points from Aaron Estrada.
Will Baker scored 24 points and Jalen Cook 20 for LSU, which has lost six of eight. Tyrell Ward added 15 points for the Tigers, who outscored the Crimson Tide 44-38 inside but could not keep pace with Alabama’s perimeter shooting.
Baker scored 22 of his points in the first half, hitting nine of his first 12 shots, including a pair of 3s. His production helped LSU remain close during the first half, after which Alabama led 49-46.
BIG PICTURE
Alabama: Scored 100 or more points for the seventh time this season. The Tide have done that twice in conference play — both times against LSU. Alabama shot 40.9% from 3 and now is 12-2 when shooting at least 40% from deep.
LSU: Turned the ball over 12 times, leading to 23 Alabama points. The Tigers also were outrebounded 43-31 and allowed Alabama to convert 19 offensive rebounds into 28 second-chance points.
UP NEXT
Alabama hosts Texas A&M on Feb. 17.
LSU visits Florida on Tuesday.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball