Ken Rogers
02/22 at 01:21 AM

TUSCALOOSA — Alonzo Gee almost single-handedly kept Alabama in the game in the first half. The senior won it nearly by himself in the second overtime.

Gee scored 10 of his 28 points in the second overtime period and Alabama held off Mississippi State in an 87-85 thriller Saturday at Coleman Coliseum.

The victory snapped a four-game Alabama losing streak and a five-game slide to the Bulldogs. It was the first double-overtime game for the Tide (14-12, 4-8 SEC) since Alabama went triple-overtime in a road victory over Charlotte on Dec. 4, 2004.

“It’s a great win for our basketball team. There’s a bunch of happy guys in our locker room,” Alabama interim coach Philip Pearson said.

“We’ve been so close a couple times. We had a tough, tough basketball game with South Carolina ... It’s so much fun when you’ve got guys on a team, 18, 19, 20 years old, after a win in a locker room. Those are times you’ll never forget.”

Gee’s performance was superb. He was 9-for-20 from the floor, 3-for-4 from 3-point range. He made 7-of-10 free throws and had 10 rebounds — five on the offensive end. He scored Alabama’s first 10 points of the second extra period.

“It felt real good to get hot in the second overtime,” Gee said. “It was real good just to win the game, period.”

But Gee was most animated when he was asked about blocking a shot by Jarvis Varnado, State’s inside force.

“I was timing it,” he said. “I actually did and I got it. It felt good to block a shot-blocker’s shot.”

That came in a lethargic first half in which he scored 13 of Alabama’s 29 points to keep the Tide in the game.

“He had that look in his eye,” Pearson said of Gee’s first half. “It was a little bit of a struggle for us. Nothing seemed to go right the first half. He did some nice things for us.”

State (17-10, 7-5 SEC) started the second half with a 19-11 run and led by nine, 49-40, with 13:56 remaining.

“Our guys at that point sort of bonded together and made a real effort that we were going to intensify what we had going defensively. We gave them some different looks, zone and man.”

Senario Hillman led Alabama back. Hillman had just 2 points at halftime, but scored 13 in the second half, 6 in the first overtime and finished with 21.

Alabama went on a 16-3 run and took a 56-52 lead on a layup by Mikhail Torrance with 7:42 left.

JaMychal Green, who sat out much of the first half with foul trouble, scored 8 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the second half and finished with a double-double — 11 points and 12 rebounds, eight offensive — in just 21 minutes.

Green picked up his fourth foul with 2:08 left as Varnado made two foul shots to make it 64-62.

Gee made a jumper with 39 seconds left to put Alabama ahead, 66-62. But State’s Barry Stewart, who led the Bulldogs with 20 points, hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to one.

Demetrius Jemison, who scored 11 points, hit one of two foul shots for the Tide to restore the lead to 67-65 with 30 seconds to play.

Green fouled out when he fouled Dee Bost with 21 seconds left. Bost hit both free throws to tie the game at 67.

Alabama held for a final shot. The Tide spread the floor and Mikhail Torrance drove down the left side of the lane and put up a shot. It never reached its target. Varnado swatted it away for his eighth block of the game.

In the first overtime, Varnado fouled out with 2:17 left when he fouled Gee. Gee hit one of two foul shots with 2:17 left to put Alabama ahead 74-71.

Stewart hit a 3-pointer with 1:05 left to tie it up.

Alabama turned it over on a shot clock violation with 27.6 seconds left.

State then let Stewart try to win the game. He drove against Andrew Steele into the lane and Hillman came over with help. Stewart missed the shot.

Double overtime.

Gee’s dunk of a Torrance miss tied the game at 76. The Alabama senior scored 10 straight points for his team. Justin Knox hit two free throws that put Alabama up 86-82 with 55.5 seconds left.

State again answered. Dee Bost scored a three-point play, drawing Knox’s fifth foul in the process, to pull within 86-85 with 47.7 seconds on the clock.

Gee missed two free throws and State set up again. Stewart, guarded by Hillman, bolted down the right side of the lane and put up a shot. Gee blocked it, but State got the ball in a scrum and called timeout with 11.1 seconds left.

Stewart tried it again. His pull-up jumper in the lane bounced away and Jemison grabbed it for the Tide.

“(Hillman) was up into me so I drove by him,” Stewart said. “In the overtime before I knew I wasn’t going to get the foul call, so I pulled up on him and missed the shot.”

Stewart said he knew the officials weren’t going to call a foul in that situation.

“They’re not gonna determine the outcome of the game,” he said. “I wanted to get him leaning, pulled up on him. I had a good look. It just fell short.”

Jemison hit one of two foul shots with 3.2 seconds left to give the Tide its 87-85 victory.

Alabama next plays at home Wednesday against Arkansas at 7 p.m.