By Kenneth Cross
While Alabama has taken its shooting and offensive orientation to another level, the Crimson Tide handed LSU its fourth consecutive SEC loss with a 106-66 defeat in Tuscaloosa. Texas A&M has improved and remained undefeated with a resilient win over South Carolina.
Meanwhile, Kentucky and Tennessee played one of the most physical games of the season where Tennessee fell victim to itself with a plethora of missed shots that were uncontested in the game. The Vols fell, 63-56, as Kentucky rebounded off its loss to South Carolina as Antonio Reeves led the Wildcats’ attack with 18 points.
Also in that Volunteer State, Vanderbilt took advantage of the youthful and injured Arkansas Razorbacks as the Commodores shot 52 percent and drew 40 points from their bench.
Jaylin Williams had a solid night with 21 points and seven boards while guard Wendell Green scored 17 points from the point as Auburn’s defense was a major key in a 69-63 win over a tough Mississippi State squad.
Georgia moved to 3-1 in the SEC with it’s 62-58 victory at Ole Miss and Florida vanquished Missouri, 73-64, behind a balanced offensive attack where WIll Richard led all scorers with 18 points.
@ No. 4 Alabama 106, LSU 66
Brandon Miller scored 31 points as he was 7-of-11 from three and the Crimson Tide took a 31-11 lead some 12 minutes into the game en route to a 106-66 win over the Tigers.
The Crimson Tide ended this one early as Miller had 19 of those 31 points in the first half when Alabama made 21-of-42 shots when they made 14 threes. 
“When you have the character and attitude that he has, good things come to you,” coach Nate Oats said of Miller. “It was great to get him started with that first three on our first possession.”
Alabama is a shooting dynamo as the Tide average 10.4 threes (9th/CBB) per game and shoot 35.5 percent (105th/CBB) from behind the line.
The Crimson Tide made 20-of-54 threes while they outscored LSU, 32-8, on the offensive glass. The Tide also scored 19 points off of 11 LSU turnovers as guards Mark Sears, Rylan Griffin, and Jahvon Quinnerly all finished with 12 points each.
The Tigers shot only 29.5 percent on the afternoon as Cam Hayes and KJ Williams had 10 each as LSU lost it’s fourth in a row.
Kentucky 63, @ No. 5 Tennessee 56
Tennessee knew when Kentucky dropped its 71-68 home loss to South Carolina last week, the Wildcats would be a tough out even in Knoxville on Saturday. The Wildcats proved the Volunteers correct as they took a 63-56 win in Thompson-Boling Arena.
Both teams staged one of the most physical battles of the season as Kentucky held Tennessee to 40.4 percent from the floor and shot only 35.3 percent, themselves.
“We came in here with the understanding that if we fought and did what we needed to do as a team, we could win,” said Kentucky forward Jacob Toppin, who played 33 minutes and pulled down eight rebounds with five assists.
In a physical game for both teams, Kentucky made a living at the free-throw line where the Wildcats made 22-of-25 free throws while Tennessee went only 10 times, making seven.
UK big man Oscar Tshiebwe recorded 15 points and 13 rebounds while Tennessee missed layups off the dribble in the half-court and short shots from the big men in paint. Santiago Vescovi was the only Vol in double figures with 13 points.
The loss ended Tennessee’s 25-game home winning streak although the Wildcats out rebounded the Volunteers, 43-23, after the Vols checked in at fifth in college hoops with 41 rebounds per outing.
@Auburn 69, Mississippi State 63
The Tigers’ defense was the story in this game against improved Mississippi State as Auburn held MSU to 37.5 percent from the floor and 0-for-18 from three. Auburn moved to 4-1 and in a tie for third in the SEC with their third win in a row and fifth victory in their last six games.
Jaylin Williams led the Tigers with 21 points and seven rebounds as he made 5-of-7 shots from three and the Tigers led for nearly 38 minutes in the game. 
Williams scored 13 of the Tigers’ first 15 points as he scored on a layup with 12:44 remaining in the first half to give Auburn a 15-8 advantage.
“I thought Jaylin Williams played one of the best games I have ever seen him play,” said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. “But it was his heart and as physical as I have ever seen him play.”
Auburn pushed the lead to 45-32 in the second half as Dylan Cardwell and KD Johnson scored on back-to-back possessions.
Auburn closed out after Wendell Green, Jr., scored 11 of the Tigers’ final 17 points which started with a three-point field goal and a layup on back-to-back possessions.
Mississippi State big man Tolu Smith was 8-of-13 from the floor in scoring 20 points with 10 rebounds.
@Vandy 97, No. 15 Arkansas 84
The injuries of Trevon Brazile and Nick Smith have made a tough difference to the Razorbacks as we saw again on Saturday in their 97-84 loss to the Commodores.
Vanderbilt hit a 20-3 run midway through the second half and turned a 56-53 deficit into a 73-59 lead. Jordan Wright scored 13 of his 17 points in that run as Arkansas cut the lead to six down the stretch, but fell to the Commodores in Saturday’s upset.
Tyrin Lawrence led four Commodores in double figures with 22 points and Vandy shot 69.2 percent from the floor in the second half while outrebounding Arkansas, 38-31, for the day.
“A team scored 63 points in a half,” explained Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman. “As the game progressed, the competitive nature slipped and so you get the results of a team scoring 97 points on you.”
Arkansas guard Ricky Council, IV, led all scorers with 24 while Anthony Black netted 18 points and Devo Davis popped in 17.
Georgia 62 @Ole Miss 58
Kario Oquendo scored Georgia’s last 12 points as the Bulldogs shaded Ole Miss, 62-58, in Oxford on Saturday afternoon.
Ole Miss led 54-50 on a jumper by Amare Abram with 5:21 and from that point Oquendo took over the game as he hit as he hit a pair of threes which gave the Bulldogs a 60-56 lead with 1:05 remaining.
Oqueno led Georgia with 15 points while Terry Roberts added 14 and Matthew Murrell was the leading scorer for the Rebels with 13.
Defensively, Georgia held the Rebs to 42.4 percent from the floor as Ole Miss only made 3-of-19 three-point field goals.
“We hope to become an NCAA Tournament program soon, but right now we wanted to be competitive here in Oxford, a breakthrough on the road, and we did that,” explained Georgia head coach Mike White.”
@Florida 73, Missouri 64
Missouri jumped on Florida early, 11-0, as Tigers guard Kobe Brown led the assault before Florida guard Kyle Lofton hit a three-pointer late in the first half to give the Gators their first lead at 26-25 with 2:03 to play.
Midway through the second half, Gators center Colin Castleton scored on a pair of layups which gave Florida the lead for good at 54-48 with 8:13 remaining.
Florida forward Will Richards led all scorers with 18 points while Castleton was 7-of-11 from the floor with 16 points and 13 boards. Brown led all scorers with 21 points for the Tigers.
The 3-ball was big for the Gators as Richard was 4-of-4 from three while Ryan Kugel made 3-of-4 triples.
Too many magazines, newspapers, web writers or whoever tried to bury the Gators, but the week’s two wins over LSU and Missouri asserted a three-game winning streak that left Florida in the upper echelon of the league.
“I think this team has definitely gotten more confident and part of that might be because we’ve become so solid defensively,” explained Florida head coach Todd Golden. “Early on in the year, we just weren’t good at playing through adverse situations and I feel like now we got to stop creating them for ourselves but we’ve definitely done a good job playing through them.”
Texas A&M 94, @South Carolina 53
After South Carolina won at Rupp Arena earlier in the week, one of the toughest things for Texas A&M would have been to go into Columbia on Saturday and see the Gamecocks pick up where they left off.
Coach Buzz Williams seemed to have lost worry about that entity as the Aggies took a 41-12 lead with 5:11 left before halftimes.
Texas A&M shot 54.8 percent from the field while outrebounding the Gamecocks, 48-16, in their 94-53 route on Saturday afternoon. Interestingly, South Carolina lost to Tennessee, 85-42, last Saturday, beat Kentucky, 71-68, in the middle of the week, and then had another 40-point loss to the Aggies on Saturday.
Wade Taylor, IV, led five Aggies in double figures with 20 points while A&M held South Carolina to 28 percent from the field in the first half and built a 50-18 halftime advantage.
Defensively, South Carolina’s GG Jackson never was able to get his offensive flow going as he was only 2-of-13 from the floor and scored five points.
“If I look at some of the teams that we have had lopsided losses to, there is a lot of physicality and aggression involved in what those teams do on the defensive end versus some other teams that have allowed us to move the ball a little more freely,” explained Gamecocks head coach Lamont Paris.