Alabama scored a thrilling 71-70 victory over Texas A&M on Thursday in the second round of the SEC Tournament.
After Texas A&M guard T.J. Starks knocked down a 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds left, Avery Johnson called a timeout to set up one final play.
As expected, the Crimson Tide inbounded the ball to Collin Sexton, who drove all the way down and connected on a runner in the lane at the buzzer to give Alabama the win.
What. A. Game.
What. A. Finish. ??#RollTide #BuckleUp #SECTourney pic.twitter.com/LN6vcDXpyz
— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) March 8, 2018
Sexton finished with a game-high 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting, which included three 3-pointers. Dazon Ingram nearly captured a double-double by adding 13 points and nine rebounds.
Starks led the way for the Aggies with 23 points.
Texas A&M big men Tyler Davis and Robert Williams grabbed 10 rebounds each, but neither could hit the double-figure mark in scoring.
Alabama shot 47.5 percent from the floor and held Texas A&M to just 39.3 percent shooting.
The Aggies captured a 44-33 advantage on the boards, which included 17 offensive rebounds and 19 second chance points.
Alabama will advance to take on Auburn in quarterfinal action on Friday, with the two teams splitting the season series.
Lovell’s Analysis
Just when it looked like the Crimson Tide were going to suffer an excruciating loss that would’ve likely kept them out of the NCAA Tournament, Sexton delivered one of March’s best moments thus far.
Should we be surprised? Of course not.
Even during Alabama’s struggles this season, Sexton has always been the type of player that has thrived in the big moment. And just as Avery Johnson said in the postgame press conference, it wasn’t rocket science as to where the ball was going on that last play.
“The main thing was we wanted to get him in space,” Johnson said. “We work on a lot of those end-of-game situations. We try to do it when they’re tired at the end of practice. They executed it.”
When Sexton is at his best, he’s one of the most dynamic players in the country. Like pretty much all freshmen, there have been stretches of the season where he’s had to adjust his style of play, but that playmaker mentality has always been there.
When Starks hit the contested three to put the Aggies in front, it seemed more likely than not that Sexton would find a way to deliver.
Sure enough, he did.
But this wasn’t just about the Sexton shot. Ingram was a huge reason for Alabama’s success, as was Donta Hall, who made several important plays down the stretch.
Perhaps the most impressive part of the win was the Tide’s response to adversity. After losing five in a row, it would’ve been easy to let the momentum swings affect them in a big way. But instead of doing that, Alabama played like a team that knew what needed to happen to stay on the tournament bubble.
To say that Johnson was pleased with that response would be an understatement.
“I’m proud of them,” Johnson said after the game. “I’m as proud of them as I’ve been since I’ve been here at Alabama. They fought hard. They responded to adversity.”
And now, with the losing streak over, the question is whether this win will be enough to send Alabama to the NCAA Tournament.
I’m not a bracketologist, and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. However, going into this game, I thought all it would take was one win. Alabama got that win, so I’ll let you do the math as to where that puts Sexton and company heading into Friday’s showdown with Auburn.
But if Alabama wants to be 100 percent and leave no doubt heading into Selection Sunday, it needs to beat the Tigers.
According to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, the Tide moved into the Last Four In line with this victory. The problem with being in that group is that other results nationally can still have a huge impact on your tournament hopes.
Following up the Texas A&M win with a win over the SEC co-regular season champions would push Alabama beyond the group and into a safe spot.
If Johnson’s squad comes out with the same type of focus and energy that they had for the majority of this game, they should be able to give Auburn all it can handle.
“I feel like we showed that we’ve got heart,” Sexton said. “We lost five straight, and we came back and won this one. It just shows not to give up on us. And we’ve just got a never quit attitude. I feel like we played 40 minutes, and we played hard.”
They did indeed, and Sexton’s role as the leader of the pack was a big reason why.
If the Tide find themselves needing a crucial bucket late in the game, I think you know who’ll be getting the ball.
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