KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 6 Alabama took a tough loss Saturday evening, losing to No. 5 Tennessee 79-76.

The game was neck-and-neck all the way through. Alabama had the largest lead of the game of eight points with 9:30 remaining in the game. The Volunteers battled their way back in the game and were trailing Alabama by four with 36 seconds left.

The Volunteers sank four free throws off of two Crimson Tide fouls in a span of six seconds and tied the game. Alabama had its chance to win with four seconds remaining, but got called for a five second violation while inbounding the ball.

Right after that, Tennessee forward Jahmai Mayshack went down the court, hitting a buzzer beater 3-pointer to send Alabama home with a loss.

“I feel like I failed these guys,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “For 39-and-a-half minutes they played tough. I should have let the guys secure it before we got to the offense.”

A big contributor to Alabama’s loss was its performance at the line. The Crimson Tide shot 17-for-26 at the line, including Alabama guard Aden Holloway missing all three free throws on a 3-pointer attempt he was fouled on. Alabama guards Labaron Philon and Mark Sears were the only players to sink 60% of their free throws.

Alabama also went 12-for-29 on layups in the game, with forward Mouhammed Dioubate being the only player for the Crimson Tide to shoot above 50% on shots at the rim.

“Generally when we shoot under 50% at the rim and 65% from the line, it’s hard to win big games like that, but we were still up four with 30 seconds to go, there were too many coaching mistakes,” Oats said.

There was plenty of foul trouble for both sides of the game. Five Alabama players had three or more fouls in the game as the team fouled Tennessee 21 times and turned it into 26 trips to the charity stripe for the Volunteers. 

Alabama point guard Mark Sears led the team in scoring with 24 points on 7-for-16 shooting. Sears led the team with four made 3-pointers. As a team, The Crimson Tide shot 42% from the floor and converted on nine of its 24 attempts from long range. 

Perhaps the biggest bright spot of the game for Alabama was their rebounding. Alabama out rebounded Tennessee 43-32, including 13 offensive rebounds. Alabama forward Grant Nelson led the team with 12 rebounds, with two offensive rebounds that ended up turning into Alabama points. The offensive rebounds led to 14 second chance points for Alabama.

The turnover battle was identical. Each team turned it over 12 times, with Alabama only scoring one less point off of turnovers. 

Going forward Oats feels that the focus should be on the end of half situations to help his team bounce back.

“We got to really lock in on the end of the half, and the in-game special situations. I got to be much better for this team on that,” Oats said.

With the loss combined with an Auburn win earlier in the day, the Crimson Tide gave the Tigers the SEC Regular Season Championship outright. Alabama now sits in second place with a half game lead on Florida pending the Gators game against Texas A&M Saturday night

Up next, the Crimson Tide will head back home and try to bounce back for senior day against No. 3 Florida, in a rematch of last year’s SEC Tournament second round matchup where Alabama fell to the Gators. The game will likely decide the No. 2 and No. 3 spots for the SEC Tournament. Alabama and Florida will tip off at 6 p.m. CT.