No. 11 Alabama travels to Columbia, SC, to face the South Carolina Gamecocks on Tuesday, February 9, at the Colonial Life Arena. The game will be broadcast live on fuboTV.
The tide is coming out of its first setback in the SEC game when it hit the then-No. 18 Missouri 68-65 on Saturday at the Mizzou Arena. Alabama lost by up to 22 points with 13:05 left before beating the Tigers 21-2 to make a 66-65 game with 1:11 left. This is as close as Alabama has come.
The Tide heads into Tuesday night’s game with three games against Missouri (6-3 in the SEC), with seven games remaining.
Alabama and South Carolina will face each other for the 48th time overall, with Crimson Tide having a 31-16 lead in the series’ history. Crimson Tide won five consecutive games in the series by entering Tuesday’s clash. The two teams played only once last season, with Alabama making a 90-86 decision at Tuscaloosa.
The game starts at 5:30 pm (6:30 pm Eastern Time) and will be broadcast live on fuboTV, which offers a free 7-day trial period. The SEC Network will broadcast the game on television.
Preview
BOTTOM LINE: No. 11 Alabama seeks its sixth consecutive victory in the series face to face over South Carolina. Alabama won by an average of 8 points in its last five wins over the Gamecocks. South Carolina’s last victory in the series was on January 30, 2016, a 78-64 victory.
BIG MEN ON CAMPUS: AJ Lawson has an average of 17.3 points and four rebounds to lead the way for Gamecocks. Jermaine Couisnard is also a major contributor, producing 11.2 points per game. Crimson Tide is led by Herbert Jones, who has an average of 11.9 points and six rebounds.
SEC IMPROVEMENT: Gamecocks have scored 76.1 points per game against opponents of the conference so far, an improvement over the 69 per game they have managed against competitions outside the conference.
JONES JUMP: Jones hit 48.4 percent of the 31 points out of 3 he tried and made 4 out of 8 in the last five games. He also converted 76.7 percent of his free kicks this season.
SLIDING TO 75: South Carolina is 0-7 this year when it allows 75 points or more and 5-0 when opponents are under 75.
ASSIST RATIOS: The Crimson Tide recently used assists to create baskets more often than Gamecocks. South Carolina has assisted 34 out of 81 field goals (42%) in its three previous matches, while Alabama has assisted 33 out of 76 field goals (43.4%) in the last three games.
DID YOU KNOW? Alabama, as a team, have scored 10.5 points out of 3 points per game this season, the ninth highest number among First Division teams.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.