Emily Gaskins didn’t cry when she saw her team’s score go up on the board. But she was close.

Alabama gymnastics, then ranked No. 17, had gone on the road last Friday and beaten longtime rival Georgia, ranked 10th, by the literal slimmest of margins. The 196.900-to-196.875 victory brought tears to the eyes of several Crimson Tide gymnasts, but not Gaskins, who avoided the eyes of roommates and fellow freshmen Jensie Givens and Griffin James.

“If I would’ve looked at either one of them and saw them crying – especially Griffin, because she doesn’t cry very much – I would’ve started crying,” Gaskins said.

The two teams were separated by 0.15 point or less after each of the four rotations. The Gym Dogs led by .025 after each of the first two before Alabama’s 49.300 in the floor exercise, its highest in any event this season, gave it the lead.

Following three consecutive underwhelming scores on the balance beam, the Crimson Tide appeared to be in trouble. Gaskins and sophomore Lexi Graber would be the team’s final two competitors.

“I can’t control anything except to pray that these girls are going to go up there and do what they do every day in the gym,” coach Dana Duckworth said. “And then Emily just goes out there and attacks, and Lexi just goes up there and attacks.”

Gaskins, whose previous beam scores were 9.675 and 9.250, responded with a career-high 9.875. Graber secured the win with a 9.925, a career best of her own.

More important than the win to Duckworth, though, were the steady improvement her team has made over its three meets of 2019 and the way it responded to an adverse environment in Athens.

With one exception, Alabama has set season highs in all four events at each meet. All four event scores at Georgia were season highs.

“We did need it, because I think we were down after the first two (meets). The scores just took us by surprise,” Gaskins said. “We were hungry to go out there and give the judges nothing, like, You’re not going to take anything on this routine. Watch me, I’m not going to have any concentration pauses.”

On Monday afternoon Duckworth lauded the gymnasts’ ability to block out a raucous and partisan Georgia crowd that erupted when its own gymnasts landed, gasped when Alabama’s wobbled, and rewarded Crimson Tide landings with mere golf claps.

 “I definitely think that would be similar to SECs, but I think SECs will be even more obnoxious,” Guerra said. “There’ll be ‘L-S-U!’ and ‘Go Bulldogs!’ and ‘Go Gators!’ and then we’ll have ‘Roll Tide!’ It’ll just be this battle against the crowd and you’re just standing there like, This is intense, let’s go!”

During the competition, the gymnasts used the pro-Dogs cheers to their advantage, telling themselves and teammates that the rival crowd was actually cheering for them.

They won’t have to do so much on Friday night, when the now-No. 9 Crimson Tide hosts two-time defending SEC champion LSU, ranked fifth nationwide.

“I’m really excited, especially to compete against LSU,” Gaskins said. “I just think it’s going to be very similar to how Georgia was, but this time we have the crowd.”