The SEC took center stage of the college basketball world on Wednesday night as it has for most of the season.
Coming off the supposed Game of the Century between the No. 1 ranked Auburn Tigers and now No. 4 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, how each team would respond to the emotional Auburn victory was one of the main storylines going into the evening.
Auburn, tasked with the often difficult job of moving past a big win and not looking ahead despite a perceived weaker opponent, did not have their best game in Neville Arena against the Arkansas Razorbacks. Only leading by six at halftime, the second frame was even more hard fought than the first.
The Tigers were able to lock up a nail-biting 67-60 on a night where shots weren’t falling really for either team. As he has throughout the year, Johni Broome led the way in scoring for Auburn with 16 points and 13 rebounds while Chad Baker-Mazara posted 15 of his own off the bench.
In the complete opposite of the defensive battle the Tigers were locked into, Alabama got into a track meet on the road with a very good Missouri Tigers team. Even though they were able to score 98 points, Nate Oats’ squad still fell by a score of 110-98 after trailing by 13 at the break.
The Tide shot the ball very well at nearly 54 percent from the field and 42 percent from three, clawing to within six at multiple points in the second half, but they simply could not get the stops they needed in order to complete the comeback.
Mark Sears led the way on offense with 35 points and five assists but also turned the ball over four times. Freshman Labaron Philon scored 15 and Mouhamed Dioubate added 14. For Missouri, Alabama had no answer for the duo of Mark Mitchell and Caleb Grill with the pair combining for 56 of the Tigers’ 110 points.
Auburn now turns their attention to a home game against unranked Georgia while Alabama returns home this weekend as well for a huge matchup against Kentucky. The Tigers will play at 3:00 p.m. CST and the Tide will take the stage two hours later at 5:00.
