College Station TX., Not even twenty-four hours prior, the Alabama men’s basketball team tipped off against the Aggies of Texas A&M in their third SEC matchup and second at home. The Crimson Tide controlled nearly the entire game, but fell on a banked in, buzzer-beating, three point basket ripping their hearts out 81-80.

Now it was time for the women’s side of the matchup, this time out west. The Tide looked to avoid their third consecutive loss and their fourth out of the past five games. In their previous trip to the hardwood, Alabama was taken down at home in a hard fought rivalry matchup with the Auburn Tigers 66-56.

Just one game prior Bama lead by a point with thirty-five seconds to go on the road against the twenty-third ranked South Carolina Gamecocks, although they would suffer a loss in that contest as well 62-59.

Texas A&M on the other hand came into Sunday afternoon’s matchup at 12-4 on the season in search of their second straight victory after defeating the Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville just three days prior 50-43.

Like Alabama the Aggies fell by three points to South Carolina earlier in the schedule, the only common opponent the two teams shared up to this point.

A minute and a half into the action the Crimson Tide took a 2-0 lead, but A&M would fire back in a big way, going on a 10-0 run in the next six minutes of play to a 12-2 lead with just 2:08 left in the first quarter.

Bama would end the period outscoring Texas A&M 4-3, but that minute run would only cut the lead back to nine at 15-6 after the first ten minutes of play. Cierra Johnson could take credit for four of Alabama’s six first quarter points.

Slow offensive starts has been the tale of the Crimson Tide’s season to this point, and Sunday was no different. After only scoring six points in the entire first quarter, the Tide would continue to struggle only putting up one point in the first four minutes of the second period.

This continued dry-spell for Bama allowed the Aggies to take their biggest lead of the game at twelve points 19-7 after fourteen minutes of play. The UA offense would see no change in their sluggish production in the next five minutes, although the defense  held A&M enough to keep the lead at ten 25-15 with 1:36 to go in the half.

TAMU would end the first half on a 6-2 run to take their biggest lead of the game at the break 31-17. If Alabama had any chance of avenging the men’s loss just a day before, they were going to need a steep increase in offense and another astonishing comeback.

To start the second half Bama cut the lead back to twelve at 31-19, but Texas A&M would riffle back with a 5-0 run to gain their biggest lead of the game to that point at seventeen.

In the next five minutes of action the Crimson Tide went on a run of their own brining the lead all the way back to nine at 40-31 with four minutes to go in the quarter.

This minute comeback was met with an even bigger head of steam by the Aggies closing out the third period on a 13-0, the biggest by either team during the entire ballgame, to give A&M a 53-31 advantage heading to the final ten minutes.

The thirteen to nothing Texas A&M run to end the third quarter would only continue into the fourth extending all the way out to a 19-3 run giving the Aggies a dominant 59-34 lead.

TAMU would slowly build their lead even further over the next five minutes of action until they reached their peak advantage of the game at twenty-nine, 68-39 with three minutes to go in the game. They would match this lead one more time with just under a minute left and would go on to win the game 70-43.

For the third straight game Alabama scored their lowest point total of the season. This game is now also Bama’s largest loss of the year.

The Tide now stand at 9-8 on the overall season and 3-1 inside the SEC. This is Alabama’s third consecutive loss, tying their longest streak of the season.

UA will look to put all of that aside and focus on their next opponent when they return home to take on the historically dominant Tennessee Lady Volunteers. While this UT team is no longer under legendary head coach Pat Summitt, they do find themselves ranked 13th in the nation although and will bring a lot of energy to Coleman Coliseum.

Player of the Game: Junior, Guard Cierra Johnson; 8 pts, 3 stls, 6 rebs.

(Photo courtesy of The Crimson White)