AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Rylan Griffen and Mark Sears have been the one Alabama gamers to create their 3-point pictures, and that used to be simply enough quantity.
Griffen scored 16 issues, Sears added 15 and No. 3 Alabama held off a weighty problem from their in-state rival, beating Auburn 77-69 on Saturday.
The Pink Stream (22-3, 12-0 Southeastern Convention) remained the one Energy-5 group unbeaten within the league, nevertheless it used to be most commonly unsure with Auburn hanging the defensive pincers on superstar Brandon Miller.
“I think our guys showed resilience in the face of a bad shooting night from Brandon,” Stream trainer Nate Oats mentioned. “We had other guys stepping in.”
The Tigers (17-8, 7-5) ignored 9 immediately pictures within the ultimate mins. They’ve misplaced 5 in their endmost six nearest being seeded many of the era.
“Our team is playing good basketball right now,” Tigers trainer Bruce Pearl mentioned. “We are playing well. We’re just not playing well enough to beat the best team in the country.
Sears and Griffen helped Alabama overcome an off-shooting performance by star Miller, who had 13 points but missed all seven 3-point attempts. They were a combined 5 of 8 from 3-point range, and the rest of the team only went to 1 of 13.
Sears shot 5 of 7 and had seven rebounds and three assists, and scored 10 points in the second half. Griffen scored 11 after halftime and made it 3 of 5 3s. His dunk with 58 seconds remaining pushed Alabama’s lead to six points.
“Rylan was huge. We’re not winning this game without Rylan,” Oats mentioned. “And I really thought he did the best defensive job on Wendell (Green Jr.).”
Jaden Bradley handiest ignored one shot and had 12 issues.
Inexperienced had 16 of his 24 second-half issues for Auburn, passing 7 of nineteen from the ground. Jaylin Williams had 14 of his 16 issues earlier than halftime and KD Johnson added 12.
Miller’s layup with 2:37 to play gave Alabama a 71-66 top, its largest to that time. The Tigers went chilly earlier than Inexperienced’s layup on the buzzer that robbed Alabama of its eleventh double-digit SEC victory.
“It was just tough down the stretch,” Williams mentioned. “We needed stops. We stayed together, but couldn’t get any saves or rebounds.
Alabama shot 59.2 percent (29 of 49) in the game, but the top rebounding team in the nation was edged out on the boards, 36-34.
The Tide have won four straight since a road loss to Oklahoma.
“Every possession counted until the end,” Griffen mentioned, “so learning from that Oklahoma game really helped us.”
Auburn led by way of up to 8 issues within the first half of, knocking out the Stream’s govern two scorers nearly all of the era. Miller didn’t ranking for greater than 11 mins and Sears were given his first issues from the separate throw layout with 4:26 left.
However it used to be 37 at halftime, Miller lacking his fourth consecutive 3-point try with a probability to take the top within the loss of life seconds. He scored six issues under his reasonable.
“We did a good job of protecting him from 3,” Pearl mentioned, “but they have a lot of guns.”
BIG PICTURE
Alabama: Has gained 13 of its endmost 14 video games. … Misplaced each conferences with the Tigers endmost season. … Outscored Auburn 44-20 within the paint.
Auburn: Fallen to 1-2 towards the govern 25 groups this season. Hosted his first Manage 5 group since shedding to No. 2 Kentucky 68-53 on Feb. 11, 2012. Made 22 of 26 separate throws (84.6%).
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