Keon Ellis notched 18 points and Jaden Shackelford added 17 Tuesday night as No. 14 Alabama opened its season by rolling past visiting Louisiana Tech 93-64.

Coming off a season in which they went 26-7 overall, won the Southeastern Conference's regular-season and tournament titles and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, the Crimson Tide hit 13 3-pointers against the Bulldogs.

Alabama also put three other players in double figures in points - JD Davison and Juwan Gary with 12 each and Darius Miles with 11.

Gary grabbed 10 rebounds, while Ellis and Shackelford had nine and seven, respectively. Davison had six rebounds and six assists.

The Crimson Tide were 13-of-33 (39.4 percent) from long range.

Louisiana Tech was led by Keaston Willis' 16 points, while Isaiah Crawford posted 15 points and seven rebounds.

Big power forward Kenny Lofton Jr. was effective early with 12 points and eight rebounds but did not score in the second half.

The squad's leading points producer as a freshman last season, the 6-foot-7, 275-pound Lofton left the game with cramps.

Without Lofton lurking around the low post, shooting woes doomed the Conference USA Bulldogs, who went 24-8 and won their first two games in last season's NIT.

On Tuesday, they were 26-of-67 (38.8 percent) from the field and just 6-of-26 (23.1) from beyond the arc.

Louisiana Tech proved to be formidable early, falling behind 12-6 but racing back to tie the game at 16 on Crawford's jumper at 13:15.

However, the homestanding Crimson Tide used the remainder of the first half to take control with a barrage of shots from long range.

They outscored the Bulldogs 32-15 the rest of the way, dribbling in to the paint and kicking the ball out for eight treys and a 53 percent shooting percentage in field goals over 20 minutes.

Shackelford produced 12 points and three treys, and Ellis had eight points on two 3s.

Lofton led the Bulldogs with his 12 points in the first half.

--Field Level Media