Alabama wins 77-69 at Auburn
AUBURN, Ala. — Rylan Griffen and Mark Sears were the only Alabama players hitting their 3-point shots Saturday afternoon at Auburn, and it was just enough.
Griffen scored 16 points, Sears added 15 and No. 3 Alabama held off a big challenge from its in-state and Southeastern Conference rival to win 77-69.
The Crimson Tide (22-3, 12-0) remained the only Power Five conference team without a league loss, but it was iffy most of the way with the Tigers putting the defensive clamps on star Brandon Miller.
“I thought our guys showed some resilience to weather a bad shooting night from Brandon,” Tide coach Nate Oats said. “We had some other guys step up.”
The Tigers (17-8, 7-5), who missed nine straight shots in the final minutes, have dropped five of their past six games after being ranked most of the season.
“Our team is playing good basketball right now,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “We’re playing well. We’re just not playing well enough to beat the best team in the country.”
Griffen and Sears helped Alabama overcome the subpar showing from Miller, who had 13 points but missed all seven of his 3-point attempts. Griffen and Sears were a combined 5-for-8 from 3-point range, while the rest of the team went 1-for-13.
Sears shot 5-of-7 from the field overall and had seven rebounds and three assists. He scored 10 points in the second half, when Griffen had 11. Griffin finished 3-for-5 from behind the arc, but one of his biggest plays came inside as his dunk with 58 seconds left pushed the lead to six points.
“Rylan was huge. We don’t win this game without Rylan,” Oats said. “And I really thought he did the best job defensively on Wendell (Green Jr.).”
Jaden Bradley added 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting for Alabama, which has won 13 of its past 14 games.
Green had 16 of his 24 points in the second half for Auburn, going 7-of-19 from the floor. Jaylin Williams had 14 of his 16 points before halftime, and KD Johnson added 12.
Miller’s driving layup with 2:37 left gave Alabama a 71-66 lead, its biggest to that point. The Tigers went cold before Green’s layup at the buzzer that kept Alabama from its 11th double-digit win in SEC play this season.
“It was just tough down the stretch,” Williams said. “We needed stops. We stuck together, but we couldn’t get stops and couldn’t get rebounds.”
Alabama shot 59.2% (29-of-49), but the nation’s top rebounding team was edged on the glass, 36-34.
The Tide have won four straight since a loss at Oklahoma in the Big 12/SEC Challenge two weeks ago.
“Every possession mattered to the very end,” Griffen said, “so learning from that Oklahoma game really helped us.”
Auburn, which swept the regular-season series with the Tide a year ago, will try to earn a split when it visits Tuscaloosa on March 1. Next up for the Tigers is Tuesday’s home game against Missouri.
Alabama visits No. 6 Tennessee on Wednesday night.
› Georgia 75, Kentucky 68
ATHENS, Ga. — Kario Oquendo scored 21 points, while Braelen Bridges and Justin Hill combined for 19 in the second half as the Bulldogs (15-10 5-7 SEC) snapped a three-game losing streak and dealt a damaging defeat to the Wildcats (16-9, 7-5), who are projected to be on the NCAA tournament bubble.
Bridges scored 10 of his 12 points during a five-minute stretch when Georgia, which was up by 10 at halftime, took back the lead for good. Hill, who finished with six assists, had a 3-pointer during the run and added four free throws late.
Kentucky star Oscar Tshiebwe, who had 37 points and 24 rebounds in an 85-71 home win over Georgia on Jan. 17, finished with 20 and 14 for his 14th double-double this season. Antonio Reeves had four 3-pointers and scored 20 points, with Jacob Toppin adding 12 for Kentucky, which has lost two in a row and three of its past five since winning four straight.
The Bulldogs were 25-for-29 on free throws, while Kentucky was 11-of-13 and had four players finish with four fouls.