BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — During his press conference on Tuesday, Alabama coach Nate Oats challenged his team to come up with a response after suffering its first defeat of the season. The Tide lost 87-78 to Purdue in a hostile Mackey Arena on Friday and couldn’t afford to let its heads drop as it prepared to face another elite Big Ten opponent in Illinois.

Alabama’s response was a testament to its depth. The Crimson Tide and rebounded from a loss to a ranked Big Ten team, with a 100-87 win over another one in Legacy Arena on Wednesday.

The win secured Alabama’s first victory over a Power Five opponent this season and the way the Tide pulled off the win was even more impressive than the win itself. Alabama scored 100 points despite its best player, Mark Sears not being responsible for any of them. The Tide weathered an Illinois comeback effort in the second half and closed out the game despite still struggling in a few areas and with Sears bottled up.

“I think it's big,” Oats said after the game. “We need to play against a high-major team, a good one, a top-25 team and to be able to get a win and I didn’t even think we played great in a lot of areas. I mean, you look at the offensive rebounds we gave up. We didn’t shoot it particularly well from some of our better shooters and we were still able to score 100 points. We did take care of the ball a lot better and I thought our defense improved.”

Alabama faced some similar adversity against both Illinois and Purdue but handled that adversity in key areas better against the Fighting Illini than it did against the Boilermakers. Alabama forced just three turnovers against Purdue and had 13 takeaways against Illinois, which turned into 18 points. Though the 3-point shooting numbers were similar in both games, the Tide moved the ball much better and assisted 23 of its shots against Wednesday compared to 18 against the Boilermakers.

Still, Oats wants to see a continued response after an impressive victory against a ranked opponent, particularly in the rebounding department, where Purdue and Illinois have both given Alabama all it can handle. Illinois bested Alabama 44-37 on the glass and snagged 14 offensive rebounds Wednesday. Some of that can be chalked up to Alabama center Clifford Omouryi missing the majority of the second half after picking up his fourth foul. When Omoruyi came back into the game with 4:10 to go he had four points and two rebounds to help Alabama seal the win.

The quality of Alabama's opponents continues to go up from here. Alabama will face a familiar nonconference foe in Houston in its next game. Oats acknowledged Illinois' prowess on the glass and the Illini’ presented yet another good test for Alabama in the frontcourt. However, as Alabama moves forward from an impressive win, Oats knows rebounding will have to continue to improve if Alabama wants to build on the momentum it gained Wednesday night.

“They got length everywhere, they go to the O-boards, they’re one of the better rebounding teams in the country,” Oats said of Illinois. “But they’re not the same level as Houston’s gonna be on the offensive glass. So we’re going to have to really pick it up on our defensive rebounding. Purdue kind of got to us there. Illinois did that to us. So we’re going to have to make a huge point of emphasis on that going forward.”

Alabama will face Houston in the Players Era Festival Tournament at 7 p.m. CT Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nevada.