Oats, Pearl Break Down Thriller

Auburn had the Broome but won't get the sweep.

Johni Broome had 25 points, 14 boards but Alabama gutted out a 79-75 home win in part one of the 2024 Iron Bowl of Basketball.

Here's what Auburn's Bruce Pearl and Alabama's Nate Oats had to say after the barnburner [pun intended]

Bruce Pearl

"Mark Sears is fast, powerful and quick. They space the floor well.

"Rylan Griffen has great range. Very impactful.

"They'e going to run people out of here a lot, and they didn't run us out.

"Disappointed in the outcome. Congratulate Alabama. Proud of my guys for bouncing back second half. Johni Broome was terrific at both ends.

"Alabama is really hard to guard. They put five shooters on the floor. We missed some shots you need to make against a really good team on the road.

"I gave Nate a hard time [about the dim lights]. I said if you guys want a new facility, just get a new facility.

"We came here to win. We didn't. The game got away from us at the end of the first half."

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Nate Oats

"That's a good team. They punched us in the mouth out of the gate. We were fortunate they didn't shoot it well [28-67].

"Rylan was really good off the bench. We showed some toughness, fight, and grit we didn't have at Tennessee.

"They didn't go away. They're going to compete.

"The crowd was unbelievable."

On the early lighting issue

"We got new lights. They didn't flip over from the red to the light. We were trying to figure out if we could play in the dark."

On competitiveness

'We had some guys step up and complete. Grant Nelson had his first double-double [14 points, 11 boards].

"It shows we do have some fight and competitive juices."

On team leadership

"Rylan challenged  Grant to play big. He's been playing hard lately. We need to make sure everyone else follows."

Areas for improvement

"Turnovers [14] are out biggest issue now. We've got to figure out how to cut that down.

"If we play like we did tonight, we'll lose at their place."