Alabama survived a late surge from Texas A&M and held on to win 94-88 as the Crimson Tide moved to 3-0 in conference play.

A 8-0 run for Alabama at the midpoint of the second half sparked by Crimson Tide guards Chris Youngblood and Mark Sears gave Alabama a 15-point lead with 10 minutes to go. However, the game was far from over. 

Texas A&M fought back relentlessly, driving to the basket and getting to the free throw line constantly down the stretch of the game. The Aggies went on a 19-7 run over the span of almost five minutes to cut the Alabama deficit down to just three points with three minutes to go.

It was a Sears 3-pointer that helped stop the Texas A&M comeback bid and paved the way for the Crimson Tide to close out the game from the free throw line with Youngblood. Alabama head coach Nate Oats talked about how difficult it was for Alabama to seal the win.

“They’re a winning group,” Oats said. “They expect to win and when teams expect to win, they’re hard to put away.”

The story of the night was the game turning into a battle at the free throw line. There were 29 combined fouls in both the first and second half that put both teams at the line nonstop throughout the game. Alabama and Texas A&M shot a combined 88 free throws in the game with the Aggies shooting 48 and the Crimson Tide shooting 40 free throws, respectively.

With so many fouls came even more foul trouble for Alabama. Six Crimson Tide players finished the game with three or more fouls, five of the six had four fouls or fouled out. Alabama forwards Grant Nelson and Mouhamed Dioubate both fouled out of Saturday night’s game.

“We don’t really foul that much. We got a lot of rebounding fouls called on us. Our guys must have been holding, I really don’t know, it just was not a smooth game,” Oats said.

Missed free throws in the second half prevented Alabama from putting Texas A&M away and kept the Aggies in the game. In the game, the Crimson Tide shot 67% from the free throw line, shooting 27-for-40. However, it was Texas A&M who perhaps squandered more opportunities to complete a comeback and take a lead of their own. The Aggies missed 20 free throws Saturday night, going 28-for-48 at the stripe.

“Honestly we were fortunate they did not make free throws. If they made their free throws, this game might have been a little bit different,” Oats said.

A big difference in the game was the 3-point shooting. While it was not the best 3-point performance percentage-wise for Alabama, the Crimson Tide made up for it in quantity. Alabama hit 13 3-pointers compared to just four 3-pointers from Texas A&M. Sears led the way with four 4-pointers and Youngblood and guard Aden Holloway each went 3-for-6 from beyond the arc.

“It was the best feeling,” Youngblood said on seeing his 3-pointers go in. “But what really helped me was to just get lost in the game and focus on the blue collar points, so I knew if I focused on that, the offense would come.”

Alabama helped itself by crashing the offensive glass. The Crimson Tide produced 24 offensive rebounds and turned it into 16 second chance points. Alabama out rebounded Texas A&M 54-46 for the game. Center Clifford Omoruyi grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds and Nelson was right behind Omoruyi with eight rebounds.

After twisting his right ankle early in the second half, Omoruyi returned to finish the game. Oats praised Omoruyi for his toughness he showed late in the game, “A lot of guys would have just sat this one out when you roll your ankle the way he did, but manned up and wanted to play and be there for his teammates and he ended up getting almost 20% of our rebounds,” Oats said.

Saturday’s win gave Alabama its fourth quad 1 victory and its second win over a AP Top 10 team. The Crimson Tide moved to 3-0 in conference play and 14-2 overall as its winning streak is now at eight.

Up next, Alabama will return for yet another ranked matchup, this time against the No. 23 Ole Miss Rebels on Tuesday night. The Crimson Tide and the Rebels will tip off at 6 p.m. CT.