On Saturday, Jan. 28, No. 2 Alabama fell to the Oklahoma University Sooners 93-69 in one of the more shocking moments of the college basketball regular season so far.  

In front of a nearly sold out crowd of 10,976 fans at the Lloyd Noble Center, it was Sooner guard Grant Sherfield who stole the show, posting 30 points on 11-for-20 shooting and drilling 4-of-5 shots from beyond the arc. 

Joining Sherfield was forward Jalen Hill, who scored 26 points on 9-for-11 shooting while grabbing eight rebounds.  

Manning the frontcourt in Norman was Tanner Groves, who tallied 14 points on 5-for-7 shooting while securing 12 rebounds of his own.  

At the half, Porter Moser’s squad commanded a 17-point lead, at one point making 13 out of their last 15 shots to close the half. Sherfield had 18 points. Hill followed along with 13 points. 

On the Alabama side, no player had reached double-digits, and the Crimson Tide were shooting 33% from the floor and 30% from beyond the arc on a mere 10 attempts.  

By the end of the game, not much had changed. 

Leading the way for the Crimson Tide was senior guard Jahvon Quinerly, who scored 12 second-half points on 5-for-9 shooting during an ultimately futile comeback attempt.  

In a day that didn’t include many bright spots, it was freshman guard Rylan Griffen who stole the show, scoring 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting while notching seven rebounds.  

“We thought we were kind of untouchable,” Griffen said. “Coach [Nate] Oats has been warning us about something like this happening. Now that we see that, we need to come back out with an edge on our shoulder and start the games off better.” 

It was a rough day for freshman forward Noah Clowney, who sputtered with 10 points on 3-for-10 shooting, missing all four attempts from downtown.  

Clowney, a projected first round pick in the 2023 NBA draft, is zero for his last 20 from three-point land, with his last make having been versus Arkansas on Jan. 11 in Fayetteville.  

The Sooner’s 24-point win over then-No. 2Alabama marked the third largest ever by an unranked team against an AP top-two team, a result that might’ve been brewing behind the scenes. 

 “To be honest with you, I don’t think we’ve been playing great for a couple of weeks,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “We’ve definitely lost our edge a little, and they got us at the right time. We got to figure out how to get it back.” 

After a shellacking of epic proportions, Oats’ team will try to reset focus for a midweek matchup with the Vanderbilt University Commodores in Coleman Coliseum 

Tipoff for No. 2 Alabama and Vanderbilt is set for Tuesday, Jan. 31, at 7:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network.  

Questions or comments? Email Blake Byler (Sports Editor) at [email protected]