It didn’t always look pretty but the LSU basketball team held off the Tide late to bring their undefeated Southeastern Conference win streak on the road to a total of eight games on the season.
The Tigers won a close game in Tuscaloosa 74-69 Saturday morning. 
Much was made coming into the game about the amount of playing time that sophomore guard Tremont Waters would receive coming back from his illness.
To ease Waters back into the lineup today, coach Will Wade went with the starting lineup he previously used against both Tennessee and Texas A&M with freshman guard Javonte Smart running the point. Waters played a little bit more off the ball when he shared the court with Smart which provided a different look for the Tigers’ offense.
Smart and junior guard Skylar Mays shined today, combining for 39 of LSU’s total points in what was another rather difficult shooting performance for the Tigers.
The first half was a rock fight in every sense of the phrase with LSU only mustering up a total of 29 points after shooting 11-of-32 from the field for 34.4 percent. The LSU defense came to play today and the Tigers needed every bit of it to stymie the Tide and hold them to 28 points in the first half.
The second half saw both teams start to rotate the ball more to get some more flow into their offenses.
It was never easy for LSU as they encountered a lot of zone defense from Alabama that slowed down their patented pick and roll offense. At one point the Tide led LSU by 6 with 11:20 left to play that really got their home crowd into it. The Tigers battled it back as they have done time and time again on the road this season.
Fouls became a big problem for the Tigers as freshman forward Emmitt Williams fouled out midway through the second half, to go along with four other LSU players who each had to play on four personal fouls to end the game.
LSU rallied late thanks to some defensive plays and forced turnovers from Mays that would help silence the Coleman Coliseum crowd and ice the game away for the Tigers. Waters had the last say on things as he stole a ball in the waning seconds and threw it off to backboard to Mays to put their stamp on this one.
It’s not as easy as the Tigers are making it look to win on the road but they now sit at first place in the SEC with two games remaining, and are now in the driver’s seat to take home their first outright regular conference season title since 2009.