No. 2 Alabama improved its conference record to 10-1 on Tuesday, dominating Texas on the road 103-80 in its final test before Saturday’s highly anticipated showdown with No. 1 Auburn.
After the teams traded buckets early, Alabama’s 4/7 start from behind the 3-point line helped it build a 19-13 lead with 11:23 left in the half.
Turnovers continued to be an issue for the Crimson Tide as the team committed eight in the first 12:30 of the game. Eight of the Longhorns first 20 points came off of Alabama turnovers, keeping the game tight at 25-20 in favor of the Crimson Tide.
“We had way too many turnovers,” head coach Nate Oats said. “It’s become a major issue for us.”
The team committed just one turnover the rest of the half and went on a 14-3 run to end the frame, building a 49-31 lead as the teams broke for halftime.
Outside of turnovers, the story of the half for Alabama was its elite shooting from downtown. The Crimson Tide went 7/12, and guards Aden Holloway and Labaron Philon both converted 2 out of their 3 attempts.
Despite Texas nailing a 3-pointer out of the gate in the second half, Alabama continued to shoot at a high level and answered with a 7-0 run to take a 56-34 lead with 17:35 left.
Shooting continued to be a strength and turnovers came and went as the Crimson Tide continued to lead by a wide margin. Alabama shot 6/9 from the 3-point line and turned the ball over five times to start the half and led 75-53 halfway through the second period.
The Crimson Tide had five players make more than two 3-pointers in the contest. The team didn’t stretch its wide margin by much, but it led 89-67 with 4:28 left.
Alabama eventually pushed the score over the century mark, making this its seventh game with 100+ points this season.
“One hundred [points] is cool, but we’re just working on our offense and trying to get better,” forward Jarin Stevenson said.
The eye-popping stat from the contest was Alabama’s 17 made 3-pointers, which is the most by an SEC team in a game this season.
“This is a game where you wish you could shoot like this all the time,” Oats said.
Despite being happy with his team’s win, Oats said he was not pleased with the Crimson Tide’s turnovers and rebounding on the night.
“We said going in, ‘we got to rebound and we got to not turn the ball over’,” he said. “Well, we turned it over too much and we didn’t do a good enough job rebounding. But, good thing for us, our offense was clicking pretty well tonight.”
Stevenson praised the defensive performance, particularly highlighting the Crimson Tide’s success in “throwing different looks” at the Longhorns offense.
Stevenson had a career high, scoring 22 points on 4/5 shooting from 3. He also grabbed four rebounds.
“I think he’s been locked in to the right stuff,” Oats said. “Really happy to see him have a good shooting game.”
Holloway and guard Mark Sears each had 18 points. Sears shot 2/5 from the 3-point line and made all six of his free throw attempts. Holloway went 3/6 from behind the arc and brought down 6 rebounds.
Philon added 15 points on 3/5 shooting from 3, while also dishing out 4 assists.
Forward Mouhamed Dioubate had a very efficient night, scoring 13 points and converting on all three of his attempts from 3.
After the win, all eyes shift to Saturday’s showdown with No 1 Auburn for the Iron Bowl of Basketball. ESPN’s College Gameday will be live from Coleman Coliseum for the game at 9 a.m. CT. The game will be at 3 p.m. CT and can be streamed on ESPN.
