37 Points Not Near Enough At Auburn

AUBURN, Ala. – The Alabama men’s basketball team fell to the Auburn Tigers, 49-37 in the Auburn Arena Wednesday night.

“We got outplayed in every facet of the game,” Alabama Coach Anthony Grant said. “Their energy, their effort, their focus were much better than ours. I think in the second half it showed. You look at the run they went on and our inability to score. I think their effort was just much better than ours.”

Leading by 10 points at halftime, the Tide was outscored 36-14 in the second half. Overall, Alabama shot just 28.6% (14-49) from the field. The Tiger’s scored 21 points off 16 turnovers while Alabama had seven points off of 14 turnovers.

“We had opportunities in the first half,” Grant said. “We were up 15-3 and we went almost seven minutes and didn’t score a point. We didn’t take advantage of the chances we were given.”

The Tide was led by junior guard Trevor Releford and sophomore guard Rodney Cooper who both tallied 11 points. Sophomore guard Levi Randolph pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. Auburn also had two players in double digits, with forward Allen Payne and guard Josh Wallace each scoring 11.

“Their energy in the second half was much better than ours,” Grant said. “They outhustled us for loose balls. They were able to get out in transition and get easy layups. Their effort kept going up and we didn’t match that.”

With the loss, the Tide goes to 14-8 on the season and 6-3 in Southeastern Conference play while Auburn is now 9-13 and 3-6 in the SEC.

“I told the guys that we all need to look at ourselves in the mirror because this game was completely on us in terms of the energy we need to play with in a game that meant as much as this one meant,” Grant said.

Up next, the Tide returns to Coleman Coliseum on Saturday when it will face LSU. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. CT and the game will be televised on ESPN2 while the radio broadcast will air on the Crimson Tide Sports Network.