This year’s Alabama Southeastern Conference losses have mostly followed the same pattern. Coach of the Crimson Tide, Nate Oats,
had preached it. Turnovers. With a late first-half burst, Alabama took control of the game and maintained it until the last six minutes.
But Bama’s demise was mostly due to turnovers and their copious second-chance points.
With an 81-74 victory in Coleman Coliseum on Saturday, Tennessee completed a two-game sweep of Alabama and most likely secured
UT’s SEC regular season championship.
With just two games left in the season, the Vols have improved to 23-6 overall, including a 13-3 league record, while Alabama has
dropped to 20-7 overall and 12-4 in conference play.
Alabama plays its last road game of the regular season on Tuesday at 7 p.m. EST (6 p.m. central) against Florida. The team hosts
Arkansas on Saturday at 11 a.m. central time to wrap things up. ESPN will televise both games.
Alabama’s largest advantage, 58-51, was nibbled away as the Vols took the lead with a second-chance three-pointer by Mashack,
putting UT ahead 63-62. A few blown attempts to score and get rebounds erased any last-minute momentum Alabama had in the first
half.
Alabama had both brief and broad leads in the first half of the match: 46 seconds at the start of play and 24 seconds left before
halftime. There was only one tie in between, with
Tennessee dominated the most of the way after the Vols took an early 4-3 lead, including an 11-point advantage with a 10-2 surge at
the halfway mark of the first quarter.
Sears had a one-and-one opportunity to put Alabama ahead, but he missed the first one, putting the Tide behind by a score of 30-29.
With 3:47 remaining, Tennessee led 39-29 thanks to a 9-0 run, seemingly taking the wind out of Alabama’s sails after they missed this
opportunity.
After that, the Tide scored two more free throws, two three-pointers from Sears and Jarin Stevenson, and two excellent baskets by
Estrada inside the paint, the last of which gave Bama a 41-39 lead.
Estrada had 12 and Sears had
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