AUBURN, Ala. — Alabama fifth-year senior Mark Sears hit a buzzer-beating floater for the win in overtime, and the seventh-ranked Crimson Tide spoiled the home finale for No. 1 Auburn with a 93-91 road victory Saturday as the in-state rivals met on the last day of the regular season for Southeastern Conference men’s basketball teams.
The off-balance shot from the free-throw line was only the third made basket of the game for Sears, who finished with nine points. Alabama had lost four of its past six games and two in a row, 99-94 at Florida on Tuesday and 79-76 at Tennessee the previous Saturday — when the Volunteers won on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
“I’d say we showed growth,” Sears said. “We had the toughest seven-game schedule in the country, and I felt like we learned from that seven games to prepare us for the SEC tournament and March Madness.”
Alabama (24-7, 13-5 SEC) was led by 23 points from Grant Nelson and 15 each from Clifford Omoruyi and Labaron Philon. Nelson and Omoruyi also had eight rebounds apiece to help the Tide finish with a 41-33 advantage on the glass.
The win ended a two-game losing skid for Alabama and handed a second straight loss to Auburn (27-4, 15-3), which fell 83-72 at No. 22 Texas A&M on Tuesday but had already locked up the SEC’s regular-season championship and the No. 1 seed for next week’s 16-team league tournament in Nashville with two games to spare.
Alabama, which will be the SEC’s No. 3 seed behind Auburn and Florida, avenged its earlier home loss in this year’s first regular-season meeting with the Tigers, who won 94-85 on Feb. 15 in Tuscaloosa. Tennessee finished fourth in the standings; the top four teams receive double byes into Friday’s quarterfinals at the SEC tourney.
Auburn’s Johni Broome scored 34 points on Saturday, including a tying layup in the final minute of regulation and a tying 3-pointer with 15 seconds left in overtime. Broome also had eight rebounds, five blocks, three steals and three assists.
Both teams’ star players logged heavy minutes. Sears played 40 minutes for Alabama, while Broome played 43 for Auburn.
Tahaad Pettiford added 19 points and Miles Kelly scored 13 for Auburn, which was without Chad Baker-Mazara for the final 10:52 of regulation and overtime. Baker-Mazara, the team’s second-leading scorer this seson, was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul on Alabama’s Chris Youngblood.
The Tigers will look back at their miscues in this game, including allowing 10 Alabama offensive rebounds for 18 second-chance points. Defensive rebounding was also a problem for Auburn in the loss at Texas A&M, and cleaning that up heading into the postseason will be a priority for the potential overall No. 1 seed for the 68-team NCAA Division I tournament.
The Tide will enter tourney time with much-needed momentum, and they did it without having to overly rely on Sears offensively. That’s a great sign for coach Nate Oats’ team, which got 52 points in the paint Saturday.