Nate Oats shares what Alabama can take away from Auburn win

Alabama’s home victory over rival Auburn featured 30 minutes’ worth of runs from both sides before they slugged it out in a nail-biter down the stretch.

It was the Tigers who came out firing in the first half, quickly doubling up the Crimson Tide for a 16-8 lead barely five minutes into the game. But the Crimson Tide responded by flipping the script to dominate the final 15 minutes and build a 14-point lead that was trimmed to 11 by the break. After the game, Nate Oats credited his guys for weathering that early storm to take over in the first 20 minutes.

“Yeah, I thought, obviously, the start to the first half wasn’t great, but then we we were able close and be up on them 14 at the half,” he commented. “I thought we, you know, we really pushed through, realized the intensity level wasn’t where we needed to be starting out and raised it there.”

Auburn spent the first 10 minutes of the second half clawing back into the game, and ultimately took the lead at 58-57 off a Tre Donaldson dunk before the two sides duked it out in a neck-and-neck battle the rest of the way.

At the end of the game, though, it was the home Alabama team who made plays when they needed to in order to secure the win.

“And then for the game, I thought we did some really good things. You know, up three, fouling when we did, getting the rebound at the free throw line,” said Oats. But he did regret one huge error by his side in the final moments.

“You know, the fouling on the three-point shot, you don’t want to do that. That was not a good play. You know, questionable whether or not it was a call, but you you shouldn’t put yourself in a spot where they can even call it like that.”

Outside of that big mistake, though, Alabama remained poised and did plenty enough to take home a win they desperately needed.

“I think for the most part, we executed pretty well. Grant (Nelson) stepped up, made some huge free throws for us. So, I think some guys got some confidence that we can execute late-game. We had Jarin (Stevenson) in there, freshman that executed and I thought he did pretty well for us there late in the game.”

Nate Oats doesn’t have a whole lot to complain about in a win over a top-10-ranked rival.