Alabama
20-10,12-5SEC
Florida
21-9,11-6SEC
No. 14/13 Men's Basketball Falls at RV/24 Florida,105-87
3/5/2024 9:22:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Crimson Tide suffers back-to-back defeats for the first time this season with Tuesday night’s setback
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The No. 16/17 Alabama men's basketball team dropped its second straight Southeastern Conference game, falling on the road to RV/No. 24 Florida 105-87 Tuesday night at Stephen O'Connell Center.
The Crimson Tide (20-10, 12-5 SEC) trailed for a majority of the contest as the Gators (21-9, 11-6 SEC) held a nine-point lead at halftime and scored 61 points in the second half to cruise to a Senior Night victory.
Mark Sears led Alabama with a game-high 33 points, 29 of which came in the second half. Aaron Estrada collected 17 points while Grant Nelson added 12 points and a team-high six boards before fouling out.
Florida was led by Will Richard's 23 points while Walter Clayton Jr. had 22 on 15-of-16 free throws.
Head Coach Nate Oats Postgame Comments
"You have to give Florida a lot of credit on the defensive end, they were really good. They were very physical with us and made it difficult to get our guards going early in the game. We let some offensive frustrations lead to some defensive let downs when we didn't play great on the offensive end. Late in the first five minutes the first half, I just felt like their physicality and their defensive intensity paired with our offensive struggles led to us not playing like we needed to on the defensive end. Just keeping us in the game was a struggle. It happened again in the second half. I thought when we were trying to make a run, we couldn't get any easy buckets because they did a great job on defense. It's a disappointing loss; we haven't had back-to-back losses in conference play in a couple of years. We have to bounce back and be ready to go on Saturday to see how high of a seed we can get going into Nashville."
TEAM STATS
- Florida also had a big advantage at the foul line, drawing 31 fouls and went 40-of-46 from the foul line on its way to the 18-point victory.
- With his 33 points on the night, Mark Sears now has 628 points this season, moving him to No. 6 on Alabama's single-season scoring list
- Florida owned a 27-8 edge in fast break points and a 17-7 edge in points off turnovers
- Sears, who earned his second 30-point game of the season, has now scored 20-or-more points in 20 games this season, the most by an Alabama player since Reggie King's school record 23 games in 1978-79
- The Gators connected on 87 percent (40-46) from the charity stripe while the Tide shot 80 percent (20-25), as the two teams combined for 54 total fouls including 31 on whisted against Alabama
FIRST HALF
- Alabama's defense held Florida's offense to 1-10 from the field in its first 10 field goal attempts of the game
- The Crimson Tide shot 1-10 from three-point range in the opening stanza, converting its only make at the 1:37 mark
- The Gators' largest lead of the first half was 11 points (44-33) with 45 seconds left in the half
- All 10 players that saw playing time for the Tide scored in the first half led by Grant Nelson's eight points
SECOND HALF
- Mark Sears scored 29 of his 33 points, going 8-15 from the field, 4-5 from three and 9-9 from the foul line
- The rest of the team combined to score 23 points, including 10 from Aaron Estrada
- Alabama went on a scoring drought for more than two minutes as Florida extended its lead to 65-48
- Florida extended its lead to as many as 23 points (81-58) with 7:19 left in the game before settling for the 105-87
UP NEXT
- Alabama will play its season finale this Saturday against Arkansas at Coleman Coliseum
- Tipoff is set for 11 a.m. CT on ESPN as fans are encouraged to wear Crimson for the "Crimson Out"
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