BATON ROUGE, La. -- Ross Neltner had enough big games in high school to be selected Kentucky's Mr. Basketball as a senior.
Nothing he did in those games came close to his buzzer-beating tip-in Tuesday night that gave LSU a 61-59 victory over No. 16 Alabama.
"You can play basketball for a lifetime and never have something like that happen to you," said Neltner, who had five points in 15 minutes. "It's like golfers hitting a hole-in-one. You just have to be in the right place at the right time."
The 6-foot-9 sophomore entered the game averaging 2.7 points per game His winning basket prevented Alabama from sewing up the SEC West.
Alabama (21-5, 10-3 Southeastern Conference) trailed 55-48 with 4:56 to play but a banked 3-pointer by Kennedy Winston with 14 seconds left tied it at 59.
LSU's Brandon Bass dribbled the ball outside the 3-point arc for several seconds then drove to the basket with two seconds left. His shot bounced off the rim but Neltner was there for the rebound. The officials checked the replay to make sure the tip came before the buzzer and when ruled it did, students rushed the court.
"It rolled in, then it rolled out," Bass said. "Then I saw Ross go up. I didn't see it go in, but I could tell it did."
The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for Alabama, which had won 10 of its last 12 games and came into the game with a two-game lead over the Tigers (16-9, 9-4).
"You tell guys most of the time it is a tip, it's not the shot," Alabama coach Mark Gottfried said. "It may be what happens in the couple of seconds after. Defensively our guys were solid. We did a lot of things right, except we didn't get the rebound on the last play."
Winston thought the game would go to overtime after he hit his 3-pointer.
"They didn't really know what they wanted to do so Bass threw up the shot and missed it," Winston said. "All of a sudden this dude came out of nowhere."
LSU improved to 13-1 at home this season and has an SEC-best 41 home victories since the start of the 2002-03 season.
Tack Minor led LSU with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Bass had 15 points, Darrel Mitchell 13 and Glen Davis 11 points and 13 rebounds.
Winston scored 22 points for Alabama, while Jean Felix added 12 and Chuck Davis 10.
Alabama took a 43-39 lead on consecutive 3-pointers by Felix. The Tigers then went on a 13-3 run fueled by 3-pointers by Minor, Mitchell and Neltner.
Davis made two free throws with 4:56 left to give LSU the 55-48 lead. The Tide scored the next six points to pull to 55-54 on a 3 by Felix with 1:36 to go.
Antonio Hudson and Bass each made one free throw to give LSU a 57-54 lead. A layup by Davis pulled Alabama to 57-56 with 22 seconds remaining. Bass made two free throws eight seconds later for the 59-56 lead.
LSU opened the game with a 15-2 run and a jumper by Davis brought Alabama into a 28-all tie with two minutes left. Bass' layup at the halftime buzzer gave the Tigers a 30-28 lead.
LSU outrebounded Alabama 46-27, including 16-4 on the offensive boards.
