Alabama men’s basketball falls 78-76 to Mississippi State

Alabama men’s basketball lost to Mississippi State 78-76 at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, Mississippi, on Saturday night.

This marks the Tide’s third consecutive loss. Alabama has had highs and lows this season. Alabama falls to 2-3 in Southeastern Conference play but showed the ability to beat some of the top teams in college basketball, Gonzaga and Houston, earlier this season.

After the game, Alabama head coach Nate Oats talked about the need to get greater efforts from his team.

“We’ve got to have some guys step up (and) make some tougher plays,” Oats said.  “We’ve got to show some toughness about us. We’ve got to do it for forty minutes. We can’t do it for 32.”

Senior forward James Rojas played for the first time this season and scored 6 points against Mississippi State. Rojas missed the first 17 games of the year while recovering from an ACL injury he suffered in offseason workouts.

Alabama’s next game is at home against LSU on Wednesday. Tipoff at Coleman Coliseum is scheduled for 6 p.m.