The No. 5 Crimson Tide basketball team defeated the No. 10 Texas A&M Aggies 94-88 Saturday night in College Station. The game lasted three hours as Don Dailey and his team decided to turn it into a referee show. The teams combined for 58 fouls and 98 (NINETY EIGHT!!) free throws. Luckily for the Tide, the Aggies only made 28 of their 48 free attempts.

Coach Nate Oats stuck with his normal starting lineup of Mark Sears, Labaron Philon, Grant Nelson, Jarin Stevenson and Clifford Omoruyi. The Tide got off to a good start with two Stevenson free throws and a three-pointer, Omoruyi added a dunk and Bama quickly took an 8-2 lead with 16:27 to play. Oats was replaced after the first timeout by Chris Youngblood, Aiden Sherrell, Derrion Reid, Mo Dioubate and Aden Holloway.

Ten fouls were called in the first 5:30 minutes of the game. Youngblood and Philon both scored from long range for a 21-15 lead with 10:15 left in the half. Reid and Holloway knocked down three-pointers and Sears hit consecutive shots from the logo to take a 46-39 lead with 2:29 left. Sears made two free throws with 12 seconds left and the Tide led 52-44 at the break.

At halftime, Bama shot 15-35 for 43%, with 10-22 for 46% from three. The Tide managed just 12-19 at the free throw line, grabbed 29 rebounds, 13 on the offensive glass, six blocks, five steals, 10 assists and a pesky nine turnovers. Sears led with 15 points and Holloway added 11. Omoruyi had six points and seven rebounds, Stevenson contributed five points, four rebounds, three blocks and one steal. Philon scored eight points with five rebounds and five assists. The Tide committed 16 fouls.

Texas A&M shot 16-44 for 36%, 3-11 for 27% from deep and 17-32 at the charity stripe. TAM had 29 rebounds, seven turnovers, nine blocks, six steals and seven assists. Zhuric Phelps and Pharrel Payne each scored 13 points for the Aggies. 13 fouls were called against the home team.

Bama used the same starters in the second half. Right at the start of the break, Omoruyi was injured when he fell on Stevenson’s foot and badly twisted his ankle. Between the foul and Clifford’s injury, the Tide’s vaunted strength was about to be tested. Dioubate replaced Omoruyi but was quickly whistled for his third and fourth fouls. At 54-46 with 17:53 left, the Tide had grabbed a total of 17 offensive rebounds but only had six points. Nelson had a tough day offensively, but he attacked the rim for a dunk to help maintain the lead. Omoruyi came out of the locker room and re-entered the game with 16:15 to play.

The Tide went on a good run, with a Holloway three-pointer, an Omoruyi follow-up for a basket and with 11:55 left, the Tide led 62-52. Youngblood got better with each game and had a 6-0 run of his own with a long three-pointer followed by a steal that led to an old-fashioned three-point play and a 68-55 lead. When Sears twisted his body to put a shot in the lane, the lead was 70-55 at 15 with 10:06 left.

With 7:41 left, Bama still led 76-61 before things got dangerous. With 5:58 minutes left in the game, the Aggies had cut their lead to 78-70. A few bad decisions that led to ball losses as well as further fouls jeopardized the game. With 3:16 left the lead was 83:80. Stevenson was fouled and made the first one-on-one, but missed the second. After an offensive rebound, Sears missed a three-pointer, but after additional rebounds, he got two more attempts and converted his third attempt to make the score 87-80. With 1:22 left, the game was back to one possession at 87-84. A free throw from Omoruyi and two each from Sears and Youngblood made it 92-86. Sears added another pair in the final seconds and the Tide had the hard-fought 94-88 victory.

Bama shot 12-33 for 36%, with 3-15 from distance in the second half. Free throw shooting was better at 15-21 for 74%. Overall, the team shot 27-68 for 40%, 13-37 for 35% from distance and 27-40 for 68% at the stripe. Alabama grabbed 54 rebounds, including 24 on offense. Fifteen turnovers were too many, but the Tide had 17 assists, six steals, nine blocked shots, 40 bench points and just 16 second-chance points from those 24 o-boards. Sears again led the way with 27 points and four assists. Holloway scored an efficient 15 points on just 10 total shots. Youngblood had his best game with 14 points and five rebounds. Reid always finds a way to reach double figures and finished with 11. Omoruyi had seven points and 10 rebounds. Nelson struggled from the field but scored six goals and had eight rebounds. Philon scored eight points with six rebounds and seven assists. For the second game in a row, Sears was the player of the game and Stevenson was the hard hat winner.

Texas A&M shot 16-39 in the second half, shooting 39% on just 1-7 from three games. The Aggies managed just 13-22 from the free throw line. Overall, TAM shot 28-72 for 39%, 4-18 for 22% from distance and 28-48 for 58% on free throws. The home team had eight turnovers, ten blocks, nine steals and nine turnovers. Half of the Aggies’ rebounds came on offense, which they converted into 32 second-chance points. Phelps scored 24 points while shooting 9-29 from the field. Payne added 23 points with six field goals and 11 free throws.

Another great road win for the Crimson Tide. Eight straight wins and a record of 14-2, 3-0 in the SEC. The team battled a rabid crowd, inept officiating and severe foul trouble to earn a top-10 win. Sears has stepped up its game over the last month to match its 2023-24 game. This was the Tide’s first win in College Station since 2015 and the first for Oats.

Oats said after the game, “They’re a tough, physical team, but somehow we found a way to win.” The sixth-year coach added that “we made some successful plays” and that Holloway, who was in Scoring 15 points in 18 minutes with just 10 shots was very efficient. When asked about the officiating team, Oats said, “Normally we don’t commit that many fouls, I have to watch the film, but there were a lot of rebound fouls given to us, maybe we held them back to keep them off the glass.” “

Next up is a home game with Ole Miss on Tuesday night. The game begins at 6:00 p.m. CT and Sand can be seen on ESPNU.

Roll Tide!