Fifth-Ranked Florida Swamps Tide on Senior Night

Tuscaloosa, Ala. - The Crimson Tide welcomed its second straight top-five opponent into Coleman Coliseum on Wednesday night, hosting the fifth-ranked Florida Gators on senior night. Despite Auburn already clinching the SEC regular season and one-seed in the SEC tournament, there was still plenty to play for in the coliseum, with the winner of Alabama and Florida clinching a double bye in the SEC tournament in Nashville, Tennessee next week.

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The defenses commanded the first few minutes of the game, but that did not stop Mark Sears for Alabama or Alex Condon from making their presence felt under the basket. Both players made two shots from the field (Sears' were midrange shots) with Condon sinking a three as well to give Florida an early slim lead over Alabama.

The offense picked up pace over the next four minutes. The Crimson Tide made mass switches in the lineup, resulting in a couple of made three baskets by Aden Holloway and Aiden Sherrell. The crowd filled in nicely, resulting in a loud environment that affected the Florida Gators' ability to shoot as well. Although Alabama held Florida scoreless for almost three minutes, the Tide could only muster a two-point lead during this stretch.

The Gators returned fire across the bow of the Crimson Tide ship, sinking three consecutive shots while the Florida defense held Alabama to making just one of seven attempts. The physicality of the Gators and the Crimson Tide was noticeable, with the officials letting both teams play it out through contact.

The Crimson Tide and the Gators went back and forth, taking body shots at one another with not even the echo of a whistle from the officials in the building on Wednesday. Despite that, Mark Sears was doing all he could to will Alabama to a halftime lead. While the Crimson Tide came up short in the first half, they had another 20 minutes to flush the poor end-of-half scenario and come out hot against Florida in the second half. At halftime, Sears led all scorers with 16 points.

And start hot, Alabama did. Two freshmen stepped up early in the second half, with Labaron Philon and Aiden Sherrell draining two threes while two seniors, Sears and Grant Nelson, cleaned things up on the glass to provide the young players with opportunities to score.

It was a good start to the second half, but Alabama would need to keep it going if they hoped to knock off No. 5 Florida.

The effort just wasn't there for Alabama in the next phase of the game. The trend of Florida outrebounding Alabama continued, with the Gators pulling down over 10 more rebounds than Alabama in the game.

Florida then stomped on the gas, taking a 12-point lead at the under eight-minute media timeout in the second half. rebounding became a clear issue for Alabama as the Crimson Tide watched the game slowly slip further out of its grasp. The lack of urgency was reminiscent of last year's Alabama team in the final few games of the regular season.

Florida continued to pour it on in the second half, but Labaron Philon tried to keep Alabama in it. Philon led the way in the second half by draining a three and making a couple good drives to the basket.

Despite a late rally from Alabama, the Crimson Tide could never cut it to a one-possession game, and Alabama falls to Florida 99-94.

Alabama was out-physicaled the entire game, with Florida topping Alabama in rebounds (50 for Florida, 34 for Alabama), second chance points (19-10), and points in the paint (52-48).

With the victory, Florida has clinched a double-bye in the SEC tournament as a top-four finisher in the SEC regular season. With the loss, Alabama's last chance at a double-bye in Nashville will ride on the Crimson Tide defeating the top-seeded Auburn Tigers on Saturday afternoon in Neville Arena.

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.