Alabama’s players have been getting the message coach Nate Oats has preached during recent halftime talks.

In their current three-game winning streak, the Crimson Tide have put up an average of 58 points in the second halves of wins over Texas A&M, Auburn and Ole Miss.

Alabama (17-7, 7-4 SEC) returns home to play South Carolina (11-13, 2-9) on Saturday night in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

In Wednesday’s 93-74 win over the Revels, the Tide scored a season-low 32 points in the first half, but converted 12 of 22 from behind the arc en route to a 61-point second-half effort.

Five players scored in double figures for Alabama, with Latrell Wrightsell Jr. leading the way. Wrightsell finished with 21 points and connected on 7 of 13 from deep, tying his career high for 3-pointers made.

The sixth-year guard, who missed all of SEC play in 2024-25 due to injury, was a game-time decision after leaving the previous game with a right knee issue.

“I’m super proud of Wrightsell,” Oats said after the game. “One of the smaller guards was going to have to be removed from the starting lineup and he stepped up and was willing to do it so the team would have a better chance of winning. I’ve always had the thought that when you do things like that, you get rewarded.”

Wrightsell, who averages 12.3 points per game, has converted 22 of 42 treys over his last five outings.

Tide guard Labaron Philon Jr. leads the SEC with 21.4 points per game.

The Gamecocks are headed in the opposite direction, having lost five straight and 25 of their last 29 SEC contests dating back to last year. South Carolina was manhandled 78-59 at home by Missouri last Saturday.

The Gamecocks only trailed 34-30 at halftime, but were outrebounded 44-28 and allowed 16 second-chance points.

“I said, ‘It’s a great job you did to hold these guys to 23 points in the first half.’ I think they looked and were a little confused,” said coach Lamont Paris, recalling his halftime speech. “I said, ‘Yeah, 23 points, guys, 23 you held them to. No, you gave them 11 more on the second-chance opportunities, but you held them to 23 points.’ So we were doing things, we were in the right spots, we were getting them to miss tough shots, and at the end of the day, you have to finish it off pretty consistently with a defensive rebound.”

Meechie Johnson, who played for the Gamecocks when they went 26-8 and reached No. 11 in the rankings two seasons ago, scored 13 points against the Tigers and leads his team with 16.3 points per game.

Alabama has won 20 of 22 home games against South Carolina, including eight in a row, dating back exactly 17 years to a 2009 Gamecocks’ Valentine’s Day victory.

–Field Level Media

In-state rivals tangle in an effort to revive their fading NCAA Tournament hopes as Mississippi State visits Ole Miss on Saturday in Oxford, Miss.

The Rebels have lost six consecutive games, the Bulldogs have dropped eight of their last nine, and both appear to be out of the NCAA Tournament picture, as they are currently outside the top 80 of the NCAA’s NET Rankings.

Ole Miss (11-13, 3-8 Southeastern Conference) has not only dropped six games in a row, but the last three losses have come by a combined 48 points. The Rebels lost at home against Alabama 93-74 on Wednesday.

Ole Miss was within two points at the half but allowed 61 second-half points as Alabama drained 17 3-pointers in the game. AJ Storr scored 27 points off the bench for the Rebels, shooting 10-for-17, and Eduardo Klafke added 12 points and nine rebounds in the loss.

“Our defense not only didn’t do a good job defending the three tonight, we couldn’t force turnovers as well,” Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said. Beard later noted, “This team continues to fight … I appreciate how (the players) approached the tough times that we’ve gone through this season.”

Mississippi State (11-13, 3-8) has faced its share of challenges. Four of the Bulldogs’ recent losses were by 20 or more points. The Bulldogs fell 73-64 to Tennessee on Wednesday.

They trailed by 23 points at the midpoint of the second half but went on an 18-0 run to close the gap to 63-58 with 5:15 remaining. However, the Bulldogs couldn’t get any closer.

Mississippi State was outrebounded 45-31 and came up short despite 31 points from veteran guard Josh Hubbard, who shot 13-for-24, including 4-for-9 from 3-point range. Hubbard was the only Bulldog who scored in double figures.

“We certainly have been inconsistent,” Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said.

Jans praised the team’s second-half run, but noted, “It’s got to be from the get-go. It’s got to be all the time.”

–Field Level Media

Top-seeded Taylor Fritz overcame a 5-2 deficit in the third-set tiebreaker, winning the final five points to rally past fellow U.S. player Sebastian Korda 6-7 (2), 6-4, 7-6 (5) in the quarterfinals of the Nexo Dallas Open on Friday.

The match featured just one service break, which Fritz earned in the final game of the second set. Each player had one break point in the middle of the final set but couldn’t take advantage.

Fritz’s opponent in the semifinals will be Croatia’s Marin Cilic, who downed British qualifier Jack Pinnington Jones 6-1, 6-4.

The other semifinal will feature the winners of two Friday night matches: second-seeded Ben Shelton of the U.S. vs. Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic, and seventh-seeded Denis Shapovalov of Canada, the defending champion, against third-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain.

ABN Amro Open

The last two Dutch players in the draw fell in the quarterfinals at Rotterdam, Netherlands, extending a streak in which a home-grown player last won the championship in 1998, when Jan Siemerink prevailed.

Top-seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia overtook the Netherlands’ Botic van de Zandschulp 3-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5. van de Zandschulp committed 60 unforced errors to de Minaur’s 33, more than offsetting the Dutch player’s 33-15 edge in winners.

Second-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, the 2022 Rotterdam champion, downed seventh-seeded Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 7-6 (2), 6-2.

Third-seeded Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan edged Spain’s Jaume Munar 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3), and France’s Ugo Humbert toppled Australian qualifier Christopher O’Connell 6-4, 6-1.

IEB+ Argentina Open

Second-seeded Luciano Darderi of Italy bested Spain’s Pedro Martinez 7-5, 6-1 to join three Argentines in the semifinals at Buenos Aires.

Darderi piled up nine aces, saved all four break points he faced and compiled a 37-6 edge in winners.

Top-seeded Argentine Francisco Cerundolo, a finalist in the event last year, eliminated the Czech Republic’s Vit Kopriva 6-4, 6-3. In an all-Argentina matchup, fourth-seeded Sebastian Baez beat sixth-seeded Camilo Ugo Carabelli 7-6 (5), 6-2. Seventh-seeded Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina got past Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

–Field Level Media