Alabama basketball earned a key win on Wednesday in SEC play defeating Florida 83-70. Click the play button to watch Nate Oats’ press conference after the game.

From UA Athletics

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – After trailing by three at halftime, the No. 15/20 Alabama men’s basketball team opened the second half on a 22-4 run and ran away with an 83-70 victory at Florida Wednesday night.

Five Crimson Tide players reached double figures led by forward Juwan Gary and sophomore Jahvon Quinerly. Gary finished with a career-high tying 19 points to go along with a team-high eight boards, while Quinerly also had 19 points to go with a team-best five assists.

It marked Alabama’s (11-3, 3-0 SEC) third win in its last four games at Florida, as the Tide won for the 30th straight time when scoring 80 points in a contest.

HEAD COACH NATE OATS POSTGAME COMMENTS

“This was a huge road win for us. Give a ton of credit to our guys for their effort in the second half. I thought we had to win the turnover battle. We turned them over 20 times, and we only turned the ball over 12 times ourselves, so I thought that was key in the game. Our rebounding, we ended up even, but getting 20 offensive boards, I thought our effort was great. We really needed our guys to come alive and they did.”

Team Stats

Joining Gary and Quinerly in double figures was Jaden Shackelford (14 points), Keon Ellis (13 points) and Charles Bediako (11 points)UA forced a season-high 13 steals, led by Ellis who finished with fourBediako added two blocks and two steals to the night

Florida (9-4, 0-1) entered the game ranked No. 20 in the nation in average points allowed per game (59.7) but Alabama scored the most points UF has given up this yearAlabama scored 21 points off 20 Florida turnovers, while the Gators tallied just 10 points off 12 Tide turnovers

Gary earned the Hard Hat Award