Alabama men’s basketball got back in the win column on Saturday. The Crimson Tide routed East Kentucky, 111-67, in its penultimate non-conference game of the regular season. It was a season-high in points for Alabama’s offense.

UA (7-5) had dropped three hard-fought road games against some of the best in the country (Purdue, Creighton Arizona) and was left “a little discouraged, a little frustrated and disappointed with the fact that we haven’t been able to come up with one,” head coach Nate Oats said yesterday.

The respite came in the form of the EKU Colonels (4-8), who entered Coleman Coliseum dropping three of their last four. Within eight minutes, Alabama led by 16 points. By halftime, it had 61, en route to its first 100-point performance since Nov. 14 against South Alabama.

The Tide shot 50% (19-of-38) from 3-point range, led by five from Rylan Griffen (five), Davin Cosby Jr. (four) and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (three). Alabama entered the day as the best offensive team in the country per KenPom. The defense was a lagging 97th, especially against UA’s four losses to teams all rated in the top 26 of overall adjusted efficiency. Alabama held Eastern Kentucky to 33.8% from the field.

EKU’s Leelan Walker led all scorers with 20 points, but he also committed five turnovers. Alabama’s Grant Nelson had his most efficient game of the year with 7-of-9 shooting with 19 points (2-of-3 from range, 3-for-3 from the free-throw line), five assists and two rebounds. Griffen, the player Oats identified as the team’s best perimeter defender, dropped 14 points in the first half and 19 overall.

“A good win going into Christmas. We needed a win like that. I thought for 36 minutes we played really good basketball. Obviously, the start to the second half wasn’t what we wanted. I thought we responded pretty well, season-high in assists,” Oats told reporters postgame.

Overall, it wasn’t a complete pallette-cleanser. The Colonels scored the first 11 points of the second half and Alabama didn’t record a field goal for over four minutes.

“We can’t do this,” Oats said of his message to the team in that stretch. “We’ve been one of the best teams in the country for large parts of most games. We just have stretches where we just fall apart and lost everything we built up.”

EKU never threatened the scoreboard. Alabama extended its lead by six points in the following four minutes. Mohamed Wague scored seven of his nine points in that window.

The Tide’s matchup against Liberty will be the C.M. Newton Classic in Legacy Arena.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].