Tide tames Gators in swampy overtime victory

The Alabama Crimson Tide earned yet another massive victory on Wednesday night, taking down the Florida Gators 98-93 after an epic overtime battle.

Struggling from beyond the arc, the Tide had to find new ways to get it done as their three-point game fell short for much of the night, especially in the first half. Alabama shot just 2 of 18 (11.1%) from three in the first half, but were lucky to be only down 41-37 at the break.

The poor shooting led to Alabama not even attempting a three for the first eight minutes of the second half, an extreme aberration for Nate Oats’ team.

Over the last 11 minutes or so of the game, however, the three ball finally started falling and allowed Alabama to finish 8 of 32 (25%).

Alabama found itself down double digits at one point in the second half but were still able to rally back, send the game to overtime, and eventually pull away after a back-and-forth extra period.

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Grant Nelson was sensational in perhaps his best game of the season, scoring 22 points along with eight rebounds and six blocks as well as this highlight jam:

AIR NELSON 🤯

📺: ESPN2#RollTide | #BlueCollarBasketball pic.twitter.com/acbQvyW6tR

— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) February 22, 2024

In a play that encapsulated how the game went for Alabama late in the first half, various players secured four offensive rebounds in one possession before Rylan Griffen was finally able to knock down a three pointer:

Love the effort from #BlueCollarBasketball!

📺: ESPN2#RollTide | #BlueCollarBasketball pic.twitter.com/tZKdZPbonJ

— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) February 22, 2024

Mark Sears had far from his best game, but still put up 17 points, 8 assists, and 7 rebounds as well as his only made three of the night being a huge shot with under five minutes to put Alabama on top:

MARK SEARS!!!

📺: ESPN2#RollTide | #BlueCollarBasketball pic.twitter.com/UVMfuSHac9

— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) February 22, 2024

Both Sam Walters and Nick Pringle were huge off the bench, with Walters scoring 14 and Pringle scoring 13 along with eight rebounds:

Big Man Rebound from Sam!

📺: ESPN2#RollTide | #BlueCollarBasketball pic.twitter.com/HjgP1vvStK

— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) February 22, 2024

“We can reference back to when we didn’t shoot well. Honestly, we didn’t play well in a lot of areas and still found a way to win against a good team. This is a team that was as hot as any in this league. You’ve got the number nine ranked offense in the country. Shoot, we didn’t do a great job on defense. We probably made them look even better than the number nine offense in the country and we still figured out ways to win,” Nate Oats said after the victory.

Alabama held onto its full game lead at the top of the SEC, now sitting at 11-2 with just five games remaining. The Tide have a massive road test on Saturday, heading to Lexington to take on Kentucky in a game that will be played at 3 P.M. CST on CBS.