BamaCentral Courtside: Alabama 79, Auburn 75

Transcript

00:00 For Bama central.com. I'm Katie Windham here with Joe Gaither and Blake Beiler after Alabama basketball

00:04 79 to 75 win over the Auburn Tigers inside Coleman Coliseum on Wednesday night Blake. I'll start with you

00:11 What led to Alabama getting this victory tonight

00:15 It's a big question. I think

00:18 one of the biggest things was NATO to talk has been talking kind of all season about toughness and

00:25 Competitiveness and I think we saw that to a higher degree tonight than we really had seen

00:29 All season from this team. I mean you start the game Alabama had another slow start

00:35 Which they have been prone to do over the last couple of games. They were down 12 to 4

00:40 Ryland Griffin comes off the bench. He hits his first four shots all from three-point range

00:45 and then from that it kind of ignited this back-and-forth game where

00:51 Alabama just played really really hard you saw Grant Nelson answer kind of a challenge from Ryland Griffin that he

00:57 Said that Ryland gave to him on the bench to play harder. He came up with

01:01 11 rebounds he had a putback dunk towards the end of the game

01:04 So just I feel like this game was one with a lot of individual like small effort plays

01:11 It wasn't the fact that Alabama really shot the lights out

01:14 I mean they shot one the first half and they finished everything around 37 38 percent from three

01:19 So it wasn't crazy shooting. I thought Alabama defended really well, especially on the ball

01:25 I thought the trail rights led a great defensive game. So really just a lot of small winning plays

01:30 That showed a lot of toughness and competitiveness like Nate Oates has been looking for that led to this big win

01:35 Yeah, it's talked about in the post game. He acknowledged that starts to both paths or something. They've got to work on

01:40 But I think we also saw an Alabama team tonight that they had the 14-point lead at halftime

01:45 They gave it up, but then they didn't fold they stayed in the game

01:49 I think a big part of that was the crowd but

01:51 We saw Mark Sears once can lead all them and scoring we saw the trial right so and Ryland shoot

01:55 Welcome three great Nelson has double double. Who would you give tonight's MVP to for the Crimson Pack? Honestly?

02:00 I think it's got to go to grant Nelson

02:02 I want to say Mark Sears just but that's the easy answer

02:04 Auburn takes the lead what by one without six minutes left in the game and Mark Sears comes right down to the underneath the basket

02:11 We're standing under and gets an and one and from there. It was really Alabama one two-point lead ahead

02:15 But I was really impressed with Grant Nelson the air ball to respond with a dunk of a putback and then offensive rebounds

02:22 Look for a guy that's been maybe lacking in confidence in the offensive end

02:25 Especially in the SEC to play this well against a team a top-ten team

02:30 It gives Alabama its first top-ten win of the season

02:32 I think this could be a huge stepping stone moment for grants Nelson for the rest of season. Yeah, I agree

02:38 I think he answered Ryland Griffin's challenge the coaches challenge

02:40 I think maybe he answered a question that a lot of the fans have had is you know

02:44 Can he compete against these big teams and he did it tonight like a against a top-ten team and Alabama kind of picks up?

02:49 Its first signature win of the season they play in a lot of close games against really tough teams against other top-ten teams

02:53 I wasn't able to come out on top tonight with the Coleman Coliseum crowd

02:57 They were able to do it and Alabama is now back tied for first place in the SEC

03:01 And we'll be back in Coleman Coliseum on Saturday against LSU

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