Trevor Releford tied his season high with 20 points and host Alabama made it a football-basketball sweep of SEC rival Louisiana State with a 69-53 victory on Wednesday.

Tony Mitchell added 11 points and 10 rebounds for Alabama (13-3, 2-0 SEC), which is off to its best start since 2005-06 – the last time it made the NCAA Tournament.

Andre Stringer scored 13 points for LSU (11-5, 1-1), which shot just 35 percent. The Tigers, who have already matched their win total from each of the last two seasons, were seeking to win consecutive conference games for the first time in nearly three years.

But much like their football brethren who suffered a 21-0 loss to Alabama in Monday’s BCS national championship game, LSU was unable to crack an air-tight Crimson Tide defense. The Tigers had more turnovers (11) than field goals (seven) in the first half and trailed 31-19 at the break. Alabama held LSU without a field goal for the final eight minutes and closed the half on a 21-6 run.

The 19 points marked LSU’s lowest-scoring first half this season.

The Tigers started to show signs of life early in the second half and pulled to within 40-32 with just under 15 minutes left, but Mitchell’s dunk capped a 16-5 run that gave the Crimson Tide a commanding 56-37 lead. The advantage grew to as many as 21 points – the same margin of victory in Monday night’s game.

Alabama became the first team in 10 games to score at least 60 points against LSU.