The entice was set and Oklahoma yanked the wire Saturday afternoon.
After profitable 9 straight, Alabama imploded in a uncommon journey exterior of league play as Oklahoma college students rushed the ground within the aftermath. The 93-69 loss was by no means actually shut as the defensive depth coach that Nate Oats listed Friday as the explanation for its surge was out of the blue lacking.
After holding every of the final 9 opponents below 70, Alabama noticed the Sooners cross that threshold with 11:55 to play within the final SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
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The Crimson Tide fell to 18-3 whereas Oklahoma moved to 12-9 after just a few close to misses towards highly-ranked groups.
“Oklahoma came ready to play,” Oats mentioned, “and we obviously didn’t.”
The Sooners led by as many as 32 in Alabama’s first loss since falling 100-90 to Gonzaga on Dec. 17.
Oklahoma shot 57.6%, a season-high towards Power 5 competitors whereas nailing 9-of-13 3-point pictures.
Alabama, in the meantime, barely season-low efficiency from the 3-point line. Its six makes on 22 makes an attempt had been three higher than the 3-for-28 season-opening win over Longwood.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think we’ve been playing great for a couple of weeks,” Oats mentioned. “We definitely lost our edge a little bit and they got us at the right time.”
Brandon Miller’s 11 factors on 4-for-14 capturing had been his fewest since scoring eight at Houston on Dec. 10. Rylan Griffen led Alabama with 15 factors off the bench whereas Jahvon Quinerly added 12. Starters Jaden Bradley and Charles Bediako struggled as the freshman guard completed with one level on 0-for-3 capturing whereas the middle had 4 factors and two rebounds taking part in simply eight minutes.
The story, nevertheless, was the defensive finish of the ground.
Grant Sherfield’s 30 factors led the way in which adopted by Jalen Hills’ 26 as the Sooners scored 1.3 factors per possession.
Oats mentioned he was shocked by the defensive efficiency.
“Yeah,” he mentioned. “We’ve been, I think we were fifth in the country in defensive efficiency coming into this game so this wasn’t a typical showing by us. But our effort has to be better. We knew Sherfield was good. We didn’t follow the game plan. The starting group obviously wasn’t good to start the game two games in a row now.”
Oklahoma got here out firing Saturday afternoon. It led by as many as 15 within the first half whereas making six of the primary seven from 3-point vary. The Sooners averaged simply 6.7 made 3-pointers a sport (No. 264 nationally) coming into Saturday.
Sherfield had 18 earlier than halftime when Alabama’s usually stable defense had quite a few breakdowns.
The deficit was 50-33 after 20 minutes and Alabama received no nearer than 11 after a short surge following halftime.
On the opposite finish, the Sooners restricted Miller to 6 factors on 2-for-10 capturing earlier than the intermission whereas blocking 4 pictures. Alabama’s 3-point capturing sport additionally slumbered early as Noah Gurley made the workforce’s first with 6:26 left within the first half as the Tide tried simply 4 earlier than that.
Turnovers, nevertheless, weren’t a significant concern for an Alabama workforce that dedicated under its season common with 13. Of its 25 made pictures, nevertheless, solely six had been assisted — a season low. Miller had half of the assists with three with Mark Sears, Griffen and Quinerly every including one.
Alabama will shut the month of January with a Tuesday go to from Vanderbilt at 7:30 p.m. CT in Coleman Coliseum.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.
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