No. 5 Alabama held off a late surge by No. 10 Texas A&M to win its fifth top-25 win of the season by a score of 94-88.
The Crimson Tide never trailed and led by as much as 15 points, but a resilient Texas A&M team battled its way back to make the game interesting in the final minutes. With the win, the Crimson Tide remain undefeated in conference play at 3-0, joining in-state rival Auburn and their next opponent, Ole Miss, as the only remaining undefeated teams in SEC play.
Here are a few takeaways from the game.
Foul Trouble
The game never could get in a smooth flow thanks to 58 combined personal fouls. Both teams had two players foul out with Alabama having half of its players that logged minutes having at least four fouls. The Crimson Tide were charged with 31 personal fouls, most of which were handed to their paint protectors, making the second half substitutions challenging for Nate Oats.
Free Throw Struggles
Alabama improved from its previous game of shooting 50% from the free throw line, but not by much. The Crimson Tide went to the line 40 times but were only able to capitalize on 27 of those attempts for just 68%. Luckily for Alabama, the Aggies shot worse from the line at 58%, which was ultimately one of the biggest differences in the outcome of the game.
Offensive Rebounds
The Crimson Tide beat the best offensive rebounding team in the nation at their own game. Alabama matched the physicality of Texas A&M and won the battle on the offensive glass 24-23. The deficit was much larger midway through the second half before foul trouble from the Alabama big men caused them to be less aggressive on the glass.
Strong Performance From Sears
Mark Sears put together another stellar performance to lead the Crimson Tide to victory. For the 10th game this season, and fifth consecutive, Sears scored over 20 points. Sears had a game-high 27 points while hitting clutch free throws near the end of the game to seal the win for the Crimson Tide.
Alabama will host Ole Miss on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
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