No. 5 Alabama men’s basketball downed No. 10 Texas A&M 94-88 Saturday to improve to 3-0 in SEC play.
The win was Alabama’s 23rd AP Top 25 win in head coach Nate Oats’ tenure, and if Texas A&M continues the run it has been on this year, it will be an impressive win on the Crimson Tide’s resume come March. Alabama also avenged its last trip to College Station, Texas, when the Aggies got the better of Alabama in the 2023 road matchup 67-61.
“That was a tough, hard-fought physical game,” head coach Nate Oats said. “That’s what they do.”
Guard Mark Sears again led in scoring with 27 points. He connected on 7 of his 18 shot attempts and converted 9 of 10 free throws.
Guard Chris Youngblood put on one of his best performances in an Alabama uniform, scoring 14 points on 4 of 7 shooting. He also connected on 50% of his 3-point attempts and muscled down 5 rebounds.
“I knew if I focused on the blue-collar points, the offense would come,” Youngblood said.
A key storyline coming into Saturday’s contest was the absence of Texas A&M guard Wade Taylor IV. He is the Aggies’ leading scorer and missed his second straight contest with an undisclosed injury he suffered in the team’s SEC opener against the Texas Longhorns.
Texas A&M guard Zhuric Phelps once again stepped up in Taylor’s absence – in the team’s last game against Oklahoma, Phelps scored 34 points – and helped keep his team in the game, scoring 24 points and grabbing 9 rebounds.
Oats commended Phelps’ effort and said Alabama’s defense “didn’t do a great job on him.”
Despite struggling from the charity stripe for much of the game, Alabama hit multiple free throws in the last minute to close out its win. Texas A&M also struggled making free throws, only connecting on 28 of 48 attempts for a 58.3% conversion rate.
“If they could make free throws tonight, this game would have been a little different,” Oats said.
Alabama once again found success on the boards, having more offensive rebounds than the best offensive rebounding team in the country 24-23. Winning the rebound battle helped Alabama impressively score 94 points against the team ranked No. 10 in the country in defensive efficiency by KenPom.
The Crimson Tide finally found some rhythm from the 3-point line, knocking down 13 of 37 3-point attempts, a number the team will hope goes up with more tough tests to come in SEC play.
Alabama continues the SEC slate next week, hosting No. 23 Ole Miss on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT. The game can be streamed on ESPNU.
