No. 2 Alabama dropped its first road game against No. 13 Purdue Friday night 87-78.

The Crimson Tide fought tooth and nail with the Boilermakers all game. Purdue shot 50% for the game while Alabama shot 45% for the game.

The turning point of the game occurred with just under 11 minutes left in the game. Leading 65-59, Alabama seemed to be in control and starting to separate themselves with a 11-2 run to take the six-point lead.

But the momentum quickly shifted back into the Boilermakers favor with a 13-0 run spanning over three minutes to take a commanding 72-65 lead with less than eight minutes to go.

“We got to do a better job guarding some of their actions,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “We didn’t do a great job. They were able to get downhill on some of that.”

The Purdue run was sparked by guard C.J. Cox, who scored three consecutive 3-point shots and nine of the 13 points during the run.

Oats commented post game on what he saw from the scouting report on Cox.

“We had him down as one of the shooters. They had some guys step up, get him free, and we didn’t do a great job of guarding him,” Oats said.

The Crimson Tide kept fighting, pulling within four points with four minutes to go, but Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn hit three shots down the stretch in addition to four other Boilermaker free throws to effectively put the game out of reach.

Mounting foul trouble in the second half plagued the Crimson Tide. Center Clifford Omoruyi picked up a fourth foul with a little over four minutes left in the game with Alabama down just five.

Forward Grant Nelson got himself into foul trouble as well and ultimately fouled out of the game in the final minute.

Although Alabama was able to keep turnovers to a season-low eight turnovers, Purdue was even better. The Crimson Tide were only able to turn over the Boilermakers three times in the game.

With Friday’s loss, Alabama is now the seventh AP Top 10 team to lose to Purdue in non conference play during the regular season dating back to 2020.

One bright spot for the Crimson Tide however was freshman guard Labaron Philon. Philon had his first breakout game of his college career, scoring 18 points off the bench on 7-for-10 shooting and hitting three of his four 3-point attempts.

Both teams were off to slow starts Friday. Alabama started the game 1-for-7 shooting and Purdue started 2-for-7 from the floor. 

However, the offense quickly picked up the latter half of the first half on both sides. Though the Crimson Tide continued to struggle from beyond the arch, Alabama shot 47% in the first half.

Alabama was looking like it was going into halftime with a lead, but  Purdue took a 42-40 lead into halftime via a buzzer beater three-pointer from Purdue guard Fletcher Loyer.

Loyer finished the game with 17 points, making three of his five attempts from three. Kaufman-Renn caused the Crimson Tide defense trouble in the paint, scoring 26 points and grabbing eight rebounds.

“I mean they just kept going to him [Kaufman-Renn],” Oats said. “I don’t think they anticipated 23 shots from him. We sure didn’t. But he got 26 on 23 shots.”

The non conference gauntlet is just getting started for Alabama. 

The Crimson Tide will head to Birmingham for a neutral site game against Illinois before it heads to Las Vegas for a date with No. 8 Houston in the inaugural Players Era Festival Tournament.

“We’ve got some work to do. We’ll get back to the drawing board and get better,” Oats said.

Alabama will take on the Fighting Illini on Wednesday. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. CT on SEC Network.