BATON ROUGE, La.-Corban Collins scored a season-high 24 points against the school where he began his college career and Alabama defeated reeling LSU 81-66 on Saturday.
Collins, a post-graduate transfer who spent his freshman season with the Tigers in 2012-13 and played at Morehead State for two seasons, was 7 of 11 from 3-point range after going just 2 of 10 from deep over his previous three games.
Riley Norris, who'd made just 4 of 18 shots during his previous three games, scored a season-high 20 points, including back-to-back 3s that broke a 56-all tie as the Crimson Tide (10-6, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) dominated the final five minutes for its fifth victory in six games.
Duop Reath had 12 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots for LSU (9-7, 1-4), which has lost three straight and five of six. Antonio Blakeney scored 11 points, nearly seven points off of his team-leading pace this season, and then went down with a right ankle injury with a minute to go and needed help getting to the LSU bench a few feet away.
Donta Hall scored five of his 13 points on two dunks and a free throw during Alabama's late surge.
Alabama, which shot only 28 percent (9 of 32) during the first half, trailed or was tied with LSU for most of the game, but shot 51.6 percent during the second half and hardly missed a shot down the stretch.
The Tide also scored 25 points off of 18 LSU turnovers and turned 15 offensive rebounds into 13 second-chance points.
Skylar Mays added 12 points and Aaron Epps 11 for the Tigers.
BIG PICTURE
Alabama: The Crimson Tide has won seven of its last 10 with two of its three losses coming against opponents who were ranked at the time (Oregon and Florida). If Collins, who'd hit just three of 16 shots in his previous three games, and Riley can perform more consistently as they did at LSU, Alabama could enjoy considerable success during the remainder of its league slate.
LSU: The Tigers are desperate just to become competitive again in their own league. LSU has lost each of its last three conference games by double digits, with two of those games at home. Making matters worse, Blakeney, the Tigers' leading scorer this season, needed help getting to the LSU bench because of an injured right ankle in the final minute of the game.
UP NEXT
Alabama: Returns home to host Missouri on Wednesday night.
LSU: Visits Auburn on Wednesday night for the first of two straight road games next week.