Observations: Auburn 94, Alabama 85
Beating No. 2 Alabama on the road was going to take special, and it was going to take everybody. No. 1 Auburn got both — and never trailed.
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
TUSCALOOSA — The Alabama run was always coming.
Things had gotten a little too easy for Auburn to the point where it was kind of eerie.
Would the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 game in the history of the SEC really be a comfortable win for the road team? Would this high-octane Alabama offense continue to come up empty on offense inside its own arena?
After all, 14 points was the largest deficit Alabama had faced all season, and Auburn had it before the under-16 timeout in the second half. The Crimson Tide had not led at any point in this home game, which was on pace to be a first for the program under the direction of Nate Oats.
But the run was always coming. After Miles Kelly popped a 3-pointer to go up by 13 with a little more than 11 minutes to play, Alabama rattled off a 10-0 run to bring life back into Coleman Coliseum.
Then, after a pair of Chad Baker-Mazara free throws, Alabama superstar Mark Sears hit his second consecutive 3-pointer. On the ensuing possession, Alabama got a rebound out of Auburn superstar Johni Broome’s hands and slammed it to tie the game with 7:49 to play.
“You know, basketball is a game of runs,” Broome would later say. “We knew that they were a good team. They're No. 2 for a reason. They were gonna make some shots, especially playing at home. But it's how we bounce back.”
Auburn went right back down the floor and got a no-fear-whatsoever 3-pointer from freshman Tahaad Pettiford. Alabama tied it right back up, but Baker-Mazara drilled his own 3-pointer off the dribble. On the other end, Chaney Johnson slapped a ball into the stands to force the under-8 timeout.
Instead of a deafening home-court party for Alabama during the commercial break, Auburn made it a much quieter affair.
That would be the start of an 11-3 run that gave the visiting Tigers a lead that never got down to a single possession the rest of the way. Alabama only hit four of its last 13 shots. Auburn hit eight of its last 10.
It wasn’t always comfortable, but Auburn soon found itself celebrating in the corner with the smaller-than-usual number of traveling fans at the end of a 94-85 rivalry win over its closest competition in the SEC — and, perhaps, the rest of the country.
“That's how you close out a game,” said Bruce Pearl, who became the first head coach in the history of men’s college basketball to win a No. 1 vs. No. 2 game with two different schools.
Alabama, indeed, never led. Auburn led for all but a single minute. In a matchup between the top two teams in the country, Auburn was in almost total control.
As Pearl said, Alabama came storming back at one point, “as you’d expect.” After all, Auburn had seen this before. Vanderbilt, Florida, Ole Miss, LSU, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, Duke, North Carolina, Iowa State and Houston had all made its respective big runs this season. That’s just basketball, especially when you know you’re going to get 40 minutes of the other team’s best shot.
But Auburn had won nine out of those 11 games by punching back even harder. The exceptions were Duke and Florida — two Final Four-caliber teams that Auburn couldn’t slow down enough in the second half.
Well, now Auburn can add a 10th such win to the most impressive resume in college basketball. And this one, the biggest one, also came against a Final Four-caliber team.
“I am a big fan of making history, and I do know that 1-2s are rare,” Pearl said. “And we’ve got two road wins in the one-two matchup that I will cherish.”
For other teams, beating an elite rival on the road and never trailing would be a win that you would talk about forever. The No. 1 vs. No. 2 aspect of it would be a force multiplier. It would be the pinnacle of a season. It would be an achievement to cherish.
But, for this particular Auburn team, it’s just a small part of what it wants to ultimately accomplish. There’s still three more weeks in the regular season, and these Tigers know that they will keep getting everybody else’s toughest 40 minutes.
“We're gonna enjoy it for a little bit,” Broome said. “But then it's on to a good Arkansas team. Credit to them, they played well. I'm proud of my teammates for putting up the fight that we did.”
Here are four big Observations from Auburn’s 94-85 win at Alabama, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Night.
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)