No. 9 Alabama basketball snaps winning streak with loss to No. 24 Oklahoma

Looking to match its longest winning streak in 35 years, Alabama basketball never looked like the team that captured the attention of college basketball over the past month. The No. 9 Crimson Tide saw its 10-game winning streak snapped Saturday as it fell, 66-61 on the road to No. 24 Oklahoma on Saturday.

With the victory, the Sooners (11-4) recorded their third straight win over a top-10 team, becoming the first to accomplish the feat since Michigan in 2014. Alabama (14-4) lost for the first time since falling to Western Kentucky on Dec. 19.

Down by as many as 12 points midway through the second half, Alabama clawed back, going on an 11-0 run while hitting three straight 3s to cut the deficit to 55-54 with 6:52 play. However, that shooting touch slipped away from the Tide late as it missed its final eight shots from the floor to close out the game.

Alabama shot just 39 percent from the floor but lost the game due to a combination of sloppy play and an inability to rebound the ball. The Tide committed 16 turnovers while losing the battle on the boards 42-34.

Oklahoma was without two starting guards in Austin Reaves and Alondes Williams, who missed the game due to COVID-19. The loss of Reaves was especially daunting as the senior leads the Sooners in scoring (15.8 points per game), rebounds (5.1 per game) and assists (5.1 per game).

Despite the absences, Oklahoma stormed to an early lead as Alabama couldn’t get out of its own way over the game’s opening minutes. The Tide turned the ball over six times in the game’s opening five minutes, allowing the Sooners to go on a 9-0 run to take an early 11-2 lead. The careless start was met by cold shooting and an inability to secure offensive rebounds as a shorthanded Oklahoma team stymied Alabama for most of the opening period.

"We didn't come out ready to play,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “We knew Oklahoma was good. We tried to warn our guys before the game, sometimes when teams are down a couple guys, it can have a galvanizing effect."

The Tide answered back with a 9-0 run capped off by a 3 from John Petty Jr. to give Alabama its first lead up 20-17 with 6:43 left in the half. However, Oklahoma ended the half on a 6-0 run to take a 32-29 lead into the break.

While Oklahoma was without two starters, Alabama wasn’t without adversity itself. Heading into the matchup, Oats described his team as “really banged up.” Along with missing starting forward Jordan Bruner to a knee injury, the Tide also saw forwards Herbert Jones, Alex Reese and James Rojas all missed time during practice this week.

Jones appeared to be favoring his right leg throughout the game. Along with the discomfort, the senior forward suffered a bloody nose after taking a hand to the face midway through the second half. Nevertheless, Jones finished the afternoon with 7 points while leading the team with six rebounds and five assists.

"Herb's a warrior," Oats said. "Everybody in Alabama knows how tough that kid is. He'll play with anything. He's nowhere close to being 100 percent. ... We still had to play him. He's still better than a lot of other guys at 50 percent."

Meanwhile, Reese finished with a season-high 15 points and five rebounds. Jaden Shackelford (14 points) and Keon Ellis (11 points) also finished with double digits for the Tide.

“I thought Reese played great tonight,” Oats said. “You know, his best game he’s given us. I thought he came out with some energy when we needed it without Bruner.”

De'Vion Harmon led Oklahoma with 18 points and four assists while. Elijah Harless had 14 points for the Sooners while Umoja Gibson and Brady Manek had 12 points apiece.

Alabama will look to rebound next week as it returns home for a matchup against LSU on Wednesday at 6 p.m. CT inside of Coleman Coliseum. The Tide beat the Tigers 105-75 in Baton Rouge, La. earlier this month.

"Not our best performance," Oats said of Saturday's game. "I told our guys, if we can learn from it, it will end up helping us in the long run. We can go one of two ways. We can learn from it, come back and play a lot better the next game, or we can tailspin."

While Alabama’s frontcourt is a bit banged up at the moment, Oats believes that’s no excuse for his team’s effort on the boards Saturday. Along with losing the rebounding battle, 42-34, the Tide was out-rebounded 13-6 on the offensive glass. That led to 10 second-chance points for the Sooners on the afternoon.

“You can’t win big games when you’re giving up 10 second-chance points and getting zero. We’ve got to play harder. It’s the one thing for a while now that we’ve been stressing to our guys. We’ve been playing pretty good on defense, but our rebounding hasn’t been really good.

“It cost us the game. Maybe we can take it more seriously now that it cost us the game.”

After recording three straight wins of 20 or more points, Alabama scraped by in its most recent victories over Mississippi State and Kentucky. In both those games, the Tide was able to overcome a series of lulls before turning on a switch to keep its winning streak alive. That wasn’t the case Saturday as a dismal start coupled with two second-half breakdowns ultimately did in the Tide.

“We’ve been warning them for two games. This is the third game in a row that we have not played well,” Oats said. “We try to warn them, try to warn them -- when you’re winning, it doesn’t always come across the same way as when you take a loss.”

Alabama doesn’t have any time to lick its wounds. The Tide hosts LSU on Wednesday before traveling to No. 12 Missouri next Saturday.

“If we continue to do what we do, it’s going to go down,” Oats said. “We put ourselves in a great spot to win the league. Had a great first half of the league [schedule]. We’ve got to get it fixed. We’ve got to get it righted. We’ve got to get better effort, better focus."