Alabama breezes past Arkansas St with balanced attack

Field Level Media|published: Mon 4th December, 22:20 2023

Dec 4, 2023; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Arkansas State guard Taryn Todd (6), Alabama guard Mark Sears (1) and Arkansas State forward Lado Laku (8) fight to control a rebound at Coleman Coliseum. credits: Gary Cosby Jr.-USA TODAY Sports

Mark Sears scored 13 points with six assists, and Jarin Stevenson added 13 of his own as Alabama earned an 89-65 victory over visiting Arkansas State on Monday at Tuscaloosa, Ala., after falling out of the Associated Press Top 25 earlier in the day.

Mohamed Wague had 12 points and seven rebounds for the high-scoring Crimson Tide (6-2), who were No. 23 in the AP poll last week before an 85-77 loss to Clemson. Alabama entered second in the nation with 94.9 points per game.

Grant Nelson also had 12 points for the Crimson Tide, while Aaron Estrada had 11.

The victory gave Alabama a little momentum heading into a rugged stretch of its schedule with consecutive games against Purdue, Creighton and Arizona, all top-10 ranked teams.

Taryn Todd scored 15 points while Derrian Ford and Dyondre Dominguez added 12 each as Arkansas State (2-7) saw its losing streak reach three games.

Izaiyah Nelson had 10 points with seven rebounds, while Freddy Hicks had 10 points with six rebounds for the Red Wolves, who absorbed their third loss against a power-conference team after falling at Wisconsin and Iowa last month.

Arkansas State took a 2-0 lead on an opening-minute layup from Todd, but Alabama quickly took control by going on a 12-0 run. Sears started the Crimson Tide's scoring with a 3-pointer to reach 1,500 points over his four-season college career, with stops at Ohio and Alabama.

The Crimson Tide took their advantage to 20 points at 38-18 on a 3-pointer from Mouhamed Dioubate with 5:12 remaining in the opening half.

Alabama had a 49-28 lead at halftime and never was threatened in the second half.

Alabama shot 43.8 from the field in the game and went 13 of 31 from 3-point range (41.9 percent). Arkansas State shot 33.8 percent from the field and went 6 of 30 (20.0 percent) from distance.

The game matched new Arkansas State head coach Bryan Hodgson against Alabama head coach Nate Oats. Hodgson was an assistant coach under Oats for eight seasons: four at Buffalo and the last four at Alabama.

—Field Level Media