Alabama’s first SEC title in 19 years will have to wait a little longer.
The Crimson Tide missed its chance to capture Wednesday night in a dirt-plagued loss of 81-66 at No. 20 Arkansas. So the bid for a first league crown since 2002 will be moved to Saturday night’s trip to Mississippi after a frustrating visit to Fayetteville.
Alabama (18-6, 13-2) trailed by a whopping 16 after briefly gaining momentum early in the second half. A 15-2 Razorback run eventually gave Alabama its chance to make it to the conference title, as dirty troubles followed the Tide from the opening moments.
The 66 runs were Alabama’s fifth-lowest score this season and the loss ended a three-game winning streak.
“Arkansas beat us,” said coach Nate Oats. They were ready to go. It seemed like every loose ball they got. “
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The Tide was called up for a season-high 32 fouls off Arkansas ’18 while the Razorbacks committed 27 of 43 foul shots. Alabama was 3-for-8 off the line while Tide guard John Petty was sent off to play 1:01 after catching his second technical foul of the game. Alabama’s total foul total was the most on the schedule since a game against Memphis in 2017.
Herbert Jones and Jaden Shackelford connected on an error while Juwan Gary closed with four errors.
“The costs are heavy,” said Oats. “(Jones is) driving downhill with the ball, but some other things where you’re not in position… I think we fouled three-point shooters three times – at least three times. That’s the worst game in basketball. “
Three-point shooting was fickle all night and failed the Tide when Arkansas made its second half. It was 4-for-16 at half time and 11-for-33 before the game in which Jordan Bruner gave a brief break from trouble.
The game started with a few nightmare scenarios for Alabama. It not only missed the first nine three-pointers, but saddled the top scorer first. Shackelford went to the bench with his third foul with 10:28 left in the first half, as the Razorbacks had a comfortable but not overwhelming lead for most of the first half.
The backlog reached mid-half 12 before the Tide started to creep slowly accelerating just before half time.
Bruner had a lot to do with that.
The transition from Yale, who only played his second game after missing the previous seven with a knee injury, suddenly couldn’t miss from the perimeter. After shooting 30.8% in-game on 39 previous tries, Bruner nailed 4 out of 6 from a 3-point range in the first half. His last in the closing seconds narrowed the gap to just 39-38 despite shooting 52% of Hogs.
As a team, Alabama made seven of the last eight three-point shots to end a first half that began with the Tide missing the first nine.
The Tide run rose to 10-0 after halftime, but the Razorbacks recovered after a timeout when Alabama’s lead was 45-39 less than two minutes in half.
This post is being updated.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @BuienRadarNL or on Facebook