Alabama basketball drops road game to Auburn

The Alabama men’s basketball team couldn’t make it four in a row on Wednesday night against its in-state rival, Auburn. The Crimson Tide held their own at times, but overall, the Tigers were just too tough inside Neville Arena with the final score being a lopsided 99-81 in favor of coach Bruce Pearl’s team.

How It Happened

The first half included a string of back-and-forth runs for both teams. A little over five minutes into the game, Alabama held a 15-12 lead, but Auburn went on a 20-3 run to take a 14-point lead. From there, the Crimson Tide went on a 19-4 run to reclaim a lead with just under five minutes until halftime, but they let the Tigers close the half strong with a 19-4 run of its own to take a 55-41 lead into the half. It was the most points UA has allowed in the first half this season.

The second half was even worse, as Auburn got up by as much as 23 points late. In fact, they were up by 20 or more for a fair percentage of the last 20 minutes, and it took a missed free throw from walk-on Blake Muschalek to keep the Tigers from putting up 100 points, which would’ve been the first time UA has allowed triple digits this season. It was just that kind of night for Nate Oats and company.

Players of the Game

Veteran guard Mark Sears obviously put up a noteworthy performance on Wednesday night, scoring a team-high 25 points to go with nine rebounds, four assists and a steal while hitting 12-of-13 free-throw attempts. It’s tough to argue against that performance, but Sears — like a lot of Alabama players — really struggled with Auburn’s size, especially on the defensive end. That somewhat caps what was otherwise a strong game from the Muscle Shoals native.

Rylan Griffen continued to be a strong sharp shooter from three-point land, hitting four of his six attempts from deep, but he was also minus-30 in plus-minus. Grant Nelson also got things done (for the most part) on the offensive end (16 points), but he had a tough draw with Auburn’s Johni Broome, who scored 24 points to go with seven boards and a game-high five blocks. Really, everyone struggled with AU’s size though. The lack of an effective big down low was apparent, even with the return of Nick Pringle from suspension.

Key Stats

Really, there are several stats that stand out here. You can talk about points in the paint, second-chance points, turnovers, steals, blocks or a number of other things. All of those favored Auburn, and all of them were pretty lopsided. How about the fouls and free-throw attempts though?

In total, there were 61 fouls called (33 for Alabama, 28 for Auburn) with the two teams combining for a whopping 85 free-throw attempts (35 for UA, 50 for AU). It never felt like the refs were interested in letting guys play, as there were several ticky tack calls. Obviously, more of those went against the Tide in Neville Arena, but the refs played to a theme in this one.

What’s Next

Alabama won’t have much time to lick its wounds from this one, as it travels to Baton Rouge to take on LSU (12-10, 4-5 SEC) on Saturday. The other Tigers of the SEC West have lost five of their last seven games, but it’ll still be a hostile environment to play in. Tipoff for that matchup is an early one (11 a.m. CT, noon ET). It’ll air on ESPN.

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