Williams leads LSU past Alabama for 9th straight win
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) Emmitt Williams had 23 points and 11 rebounds, and No. 22 LSU defeated Alabama 90-76 on Wednesday night for the Tigers' ninth straight victory.
Skylar Mays scored 18 points for LSU (16-4, 7-0 SEC), which has won its first seven conference games for a second straight season and is the only SEC team unbeaten in league play.
Williams punctuated his performance with a double-pump dunk on a feed from freshman Trendon Watford to put LSU up by 15 points with about two minutes to go as the Tigers pulled away for their first victory by more than four points in seven games. Watford followed with a pair of layups to finish 17 points and a season-high 15 rebounds.
Jaden Shackelford scored 21 points for Alabama (12-8, 4-3) which saw its four-game winning streak snapped. Alex Reese had 17 points and Kira Lewis Jr. 13 for the Crimson Tide, which trailed by as many as 20 points in the first half and never got closer than nine points after that.
Alabama trimmed the lead to 62-53 on Jaylen Forbes' 3 with 13:14 to go, but LSU seized momentum back soon after with a crowd-stirring 6-0 run that began with Mays' breakaway layup after Aundre Hyatt's steal. Mays then stole the inbound pass and went right back to the basket. His layup rolled out, but Hyatt came storming down the lane to dunk the putback.
Marlon Taylor completed the spurt when he rebounded Darius Days' miss and bounced back up on the other side of the rim for a twisting dunk.
Williams had 17 of his points in the opening 15 minutes, highlighted by three dunks - two of them on fast breaks. He also made seven of eight free throws during that stint.
LSU took a 51-33 lead into halftime after Hyatt put back Javonte Smart's partially blocked layup attempt in the final seconds.
BIG PICTURE
Alabama: John Petty Jr., the Tide's second leading scorer, had one of the highlights of the night with a driving tomahawk dunk in the second half. But that was his only basket of the night on seven shots. He also made free throws to finish with four points, well below his average of 16.4 points per game coming in.
LSU: Although LSU missed 13 of 16 3-point shots, the Tigers still nearly 53% of their attempts because of aggressive play in the paint and in transition. All five LSU starters scored more than 10, with Smart and Days scoring 12 apiece. The Tigers outrebounded Alabama 49-31 and scored 20 second-chance points to Alabama's five.
UP NEXT
Alabama: Host Arkansas on Saturday.'
LSU: Hosts Mississippi on Saturday.
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