Tide finds grit to cut its way through The Jungle and perhaps right its season

 

 

 

 

 

AUBURN, Ala. — Alabama’s 96-92 victory over Auburn on Saturday after it had been shoved to the precipice of a humiliating defeat, then refused to be packed up and sent back to Tuscaloosa in a sausage casing, might be a turning point for the Crimson Tide.

Or it might be merely a gratifying few hours in which it defoliated the rowdy Jungle for the second straight year and cast its spine before the Pearls.

The Tide didn’t beat a great Tigers team Saturday. Alabama isn’t great either. Neither team plays what resembles defense; in fact, the Tide was ranked 345^thout of 361 teams in scoring defense coming in. But the rivals are ranked 1-2 in strength of schedule nationally; Alabama is first and the Tide found a way to win a big game, something that has been in short supply this season.

“We had a lot of grit, a lot of toughness,” said Alabama coach Nate Oats, who has repeatedly also found those qualities lacking in abundance this season.

Oats had just seen his team rally to win despite what should have been a fatal batch of turnovers and the usual hostile sellout crowd at Neville Arena, which had the verbal knives out for the villainous Charles Bediako and Aden Holloway, treating them like outcasts who had emptied an animal shelter of its puppies and thrown them in front of a speeding locomotive. Some paid $145 for a standing-room-only ticket to hurl their invectives.

Bediako, the 7-foot center and former G League pro whose restraining order against the NCAA is allowing him to once again participate in the college game, was lustily booed for playing with his fellow professionals and responded with 12 points on perfect 5-of-5 shooting.

Holloway — the Auburn transfer whose levitating, face-first dive to the floor while digging out a shot from his hip pocket helped beat SEC leader Texas A&M 100-97 earlier in the week — found the basket to be as big as Bruce Pearl’s cavernous mouth in the clutch.

Holloway, the former McDonald’s All-American guard, had 15 points, including nine straight in the final 2½ minutes. In that fusillade was another knot-untying shot in the lane and a four-point play in which he launched a three-pointer while being knocked to the floor, skidded to a stop at the feet of some fans sitting courtside, got up and made a free throw.

From that juncture on, the Tigers, who led by 10 points in the first half, flailed to no avail.

There’s no way to know how far Alabama will go in the NCAA tournament — its problems in the low post are well-documented despite the addition of Bediako, who is waiting on a court ruling to see if he can play the rest of the season. But the Tide is going despite the directive of Pearl, the former Auburn coach who said the NCAA should consider banishing Alabama from the postseason because it is playing Bediako, an incredibly paradoxical remark from a coach who has had more than his share of NCAA escapades.

Oats savored the silence at the end of Saturday’s game.

“They were pretty quiet when we left today,” he said with a grin afterward. “The best way to quiet them is to win on the scoreboard.”

Current Auburn coach Steven Pearl offered only praise for Bediako. He had no choice.

“He had a huge impact,” Pearl said. “He changes what they do offensively because he’s a guy that can catch balls in the air and go finish at the rim. They don’t have anyone else that can do that. He played really well. He did a good job occupying us on the offensive glass. He makes that team better. With him, their ceiling is a hell of a lot higher than without him.”

To his credit, Pearl had no criticisms of Oats or Bediako because he has enough problems of his own trying to get a completely new lineup from his father’s Final Four team of 2025 to coalesce.

“We scored 92 points,” Pearl said. “We’ve got to be able to win that game. It has nothing to do with our offense, it has everything to do with our defense. Our best players have got to be better defenders.”

The Tigers had just five turnovers, got 24 points from forward Keyshawn Hall, the SEC’s No. 2 scorer, and 25 complimentary points from guard Tahaad Pettiford and still couldn’t win after dominating the first half. But the Tide resuscitated in the final moments of the half to slash a 10-point deficit to 41-37 at halftime.

“We couldn’t have played much worse,” Oats said. “We had nine turnovers. We didn’t do anything good offensively and barely defensively. We’re getting killed on the glass and somehow we’re only down four.”

Trailing 36-26, big guard Houston Mallette shook Alabama to life by flinging himself into the crowd at courtside to save a loose ball and set up Taylor Bol Bowen’s 3-pointer, then made a pair of his own threes.

“That was a huge momentum swing in the game because that gave them the confidence that they needed to know that they could knock down those shots,” Pearl said. “It carried over into the second half.”

Before that, Auburn had outscored the Tide 15-0 off turnovers and led 10-3 in offensive rebounds. All of that reversed in the second half and its bench outscored the Tigers’ 28-7.

Alabama played reasonably well inside, taking advantage of Auburn overplaying the three to drive the lane and score. The Tide actually made more shots around the paint (18 of 26) than threes (12 of 23).

Much of that was due to the playmaking of Mobile native Labaron Philon, the SEC’s leading scorer who finished with 25 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds — including a trio of 3-pointers — after a sloppy start.

“I think he had three (turnovers) right out of the gate, so to only have one the rest of the game was a lot better,” Oats said. “Twenty-five, 6 and 5 is a pretty good night.”

Pearl marveled at Philon’s ability to penetrate and a pair of his step-back threes, a component of his arsenal that has dramatically improved.

“They were heavily contested,” Pearl said. “He’s an unbelievable player. He’s going to be a first-round draft pick. We close on him and we let him drive it right. You can’t do that because he’s too good of a player going downhill to his right.”

The Tide, too, might finally be turning and righting its season.