🏈 GAME THREAD Men’s Basketball Falls at Auburn, 90-71

[JoshB]

This type of bullshit is inexcusable. Absolutely pathetic.

 

[UA Press Release]

Collin Sexton scored a game-high 25 points to register his 11th 20-point game of the season

AUBURN, Ala. – The Alabama men's basketball team fell to Auburn, 90-71, Wednesday night in front of a sold out Auburn Arena. Freshman Collin Sexton recorded his 11th 20-point game of the season, scoring 25 points to go along with five rebounds and two assists.

Sophomore Braxton Key and junior Avery Johnson Jr. also reached double figures as Key put up 11 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, while Johnson Jr. added 10 points off the bench. Junior Donta Hall finished the night with seven points, five rebound and four blocked shots.

"Well, we got off to a slow start tonight," Alabama head coach Avery Johnson said. "They jumped on us from the first play of the game and set the tone. We battled back from the middle to the end of the first half. Even though they went into the half with a five-point lead, we were right there. Unfortunately, this is the second game in a row that we didn't have a great second half. You have to give Auburn credit. This was a game that we gave up 14 offensive rebounds and we had just six offensive rebounds, so they were the aggressor. Our guys wanted to win, but it just wasn't our night."

Auburn shot 42.6 percent (29-of-68) from the field for the contest, including a 12-of-34 effort from the three-point line to secure the win. The Tide finished the night shooting 46.2 percent (24-of-52) from the floor and 34.6 percent (9-of-26) from beyond the arc. The Tigers also held the advantage in rebounds, 41-35, while owning the edge in point off turnovers, 28-13.

The Tigers opened the contest hot, using a 14-2 run provided by shooting 4-of-7 from beyond the arc to lead 16-7 at the 15:12 mark. However, the Crimson Tide cooled off Auburn's offense, forcing the Tigers into scoring drought that lasted over three minutes to whittle the lead to 19-15 after a free throw by Dazon Ingram at the 10:39 mark.

With the Tigers leading 30-22, the Tide went on an 8-0 spurt over a span of 3:24, hitting three straight field goals to knot to score at 30 apiece at the 3:16 mark. However, the Tigers ended the half on a 10-5 over the final 3:16 to take a 40-35 lead into the locker room.

Auburn shot 33.3 percent from the floor (12-of-36), while Alabama shot the ball well at 46.4 percent (13-of-28) over the opening 20 minutes of play. The Tigers connected on seven threes (7-of-20) and held the edge on the glass, 24-22.

In the second half, the Tide cut the lead to 42-41 with an Ingram corner-three to bring his team within a single point with 17:26 left to play. However, after a layup by Johnson Jr. brought Alabama within three points at 55-52 with 12:21 remaining, Auburn used a 20-8 run over the next 4:48 to lead 75-60 with 7:17 left in the game and never looked back.

Auburn shot 53.1 percent from the floor (17-of-32) in the second half and led by as much as 24 points, while adding a 5-of-14 performance from beyond the three-point line to secure win.

Four Tigers reached double figures as Jared Harper led the charge with 21 points and six assists, while Bryce Brown went for 18.

Up next, Alabama will return to Coleman Coliseum Saturday, Feb. 24, to face Arkansas at 5 p.m. CT. The game will broadcast live on the SEC Network.

Alabama Men’s Basketball Falls at Auburn, 90-71 - Alabama Athletics

 

[TUSKtimes]

In that so much was made of this meeting reminding us of the Wimp Sanderson/Sonny Smith teams of the 80s, let me say this. No way! Wimp coached attitude and fight in his teams and this group has played all year like they are preparing for the local YMCA league. Where is the determination and heart? When adversity strikes, this group too often goes gently into the night.

Wimp was a curmudgeon and still is today, but his willpower and feistiness transferred to the basketball team. The best advice I can give CAJ at this point? (See Alabama football)

 

[BamaFan334]

Last night was a tough one to watch. After the rough start I thought it best to simply check in about every fifteen minutes or so. We fought back from a bad start, so that was encouraging. John Petty was gosh awful last night. I hate railing on players, but he was absolutely terrible. I also felt Braxton Key played a horrible game. Overall, we didn't suck, but what killed us was Auburn deciding to fire up a three on every possession and those long shots led to very long rebounds that killed us. There we were positioned under the basket only to have the ball bounce hard off the iron and come out towards the free throw line where their players were standing. They effectively took our height away by shooting a thousand threes and having the ball bounce their way off the misses.

Another thing I saw that bothered me was that it felt we had no desire to hustle. Every loose ball we just throw a hand in that direction attempting to show effort, but no real desire to come up with the ball. Auburn beat us on every lose ball and gave themselves so many more opportunities than us. I don't know if we have weak fingers or no desire, but I saw Key and Petty lose multiple lose balls by not securing the ball with a tight grasp and allowing Auburn to take them from us. I think Coach Johnson needs to run a few ball drills like in Blue Chips where they roll the ball on the court and make two guys fight for the damn thing and build that nasty "my ball" attitude.

The last thing were just the blatantly awful turnovers. Sexton driving in the lane like a man on fire and not under control just losing the ball and not giving us chances after we stopped them on defense. Leaving your feet under the basket and then trying to kick it out with a defender right there to say "thanks". We have done that all year long and I can't seem to figure out why we haven't learned from those stupid mistakes. We can work the ball so well, it upsets me to see us driving and our guys leaving their feet under the basket to make a lazy pass where a defender has the easiest steal of their lives.

It simply reminded me of the Iron Bowl. The stadiums were rocking, it was their biggest game of the year up to that point, and they just took it to us. We are good enough to be competitive and fight, but in the end they wanted it more in the football game and this basketball game. Here's to hoping we can pull out two more wins and get that invite into March, because we have a team that can run, we just have to mature and realize we can't make a run if we don't win now.

 

[UAgrad93]

The last 10 minutes were the most painful last night. We let it snowball and did nothing to try and break it. Even after the bad start, I thought we would settle down and cut into their lead and we did. We made no concerted effort to attack them inside and get them into foul trouble. Donta gets 4 DAMN shots ALL NIGHT!!!!! They attempted 18-20 more shots that what we did as well and we got beat on the boards by the shortest freaking team in the NCAA!!!

 

[TerryP]

and we got beat on the boards by the shortest freaking team in the NCAA!!!

Auburn did a good job of getting Hall out of the paint last night.

It's disappointing, as a loss always is, but it's not a make or break game in the eyes of the committee. They are going to look at this game as one, a road game and two, against a top ten team. It did cause a drop in the RPI for Bama but that isn't all on Bama either.

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

Avery is a better recruiter than Anthony Grant for sure. His coaching ability is still to be determined but you have to admit it doesn't look good.

JMO but Braxton Key needs to get over Sexton's success. Key plays will a lot of resentment and he doesn't do much to help his team.

 

[Destiny's Child]

Avery is a better recruiter than Anthony Grant for sure. His coaching ability is still to be determined but you have to admit it doesn't look good.

JMO but Braxton Key needs to get over Sexton's success. Key plays will a lot of resentment and he doesn't do much to help his team.

Don't understand that statement.. or how he shows resentment. Guys this is basketball.. you lose on the road more than you win.. especially in conference. Everybody gets all excited when we win three straight home games and thinks the world is over when we lose two straight road games against two of the best teams in our conference and potential sweet 16 type squads. Relax...

If we play well and win out at home we are probably in the tourney, if we steal a road win too we are probably a 5 or 6 seed.

 

[UAgrad93]

Auburn did a good job of getting Hall out of the paint last night.

It's disappointing, as a loss always is, but it's not a make or break game in the eyes of the committee. They are going to look at this game as one, a road game and two, against a top ten team. It did cause a drop in the RPI for Bama but that isn't all on Bama either.

Auburn did a really good job at denying Hall and Giddens. I was frustrated that our offense relied on the high pick and roll and not a high post to low post attack.
I think that outside of some monumental collapse here late, we are definitely in the NCAAT.

 

[CmnRef]

Auburn did a really good job at denying Hall and Giddens. I was frustrated that our offense relied on the high pick and roll and not a high post to low post attack.
I think that outside of some monumental collapse here late, we are definitely in the NCAAT.

When a team like Auburn packs the lane as they did, the only real option is to shoot and make 18 feet and out jump shots. We could not and we lost on the road. We did not get out coached we got outplayed. It happens especially with young teams. Please no comments about how old we are at this point in the season. Nobody grows up in three months. They are still young and will play that way. Mistakes will be made. I just hope Coach finds the play with hair on fire button yet under some control button. RELAX and enjoy the ride, it is much better than the recent past.