There’s something about the color orange that brings out the best in Jarin Stevenson. The sophomore forward hasn’t been No. 2 Alabama’s most consistent offensive threat, but he was nearly unstoppable Tuesday night as he silenced a sea of burnt orange to help the Crimson Tide cruise to a 103-80 win at Texas.

Stevenson led Alabama with a career-high 22 points on 7 of 8 shooting. The 6-foot-11 forward was especially lethal beyond the arc, draining 4 of 5 shots from deep.

Stevenson’s performance comes in a season in which he entered Tuesday night shooting 23.8% from 3 while averaging 4.8 points over roughly 18 minutes a game. Still, Alabama head coach Nate Oats has never strayed from his faith in the former four-star recruit. After all, it was Stevenson who scored 19 points while draining 5 of 8 shots from deep against Clemson to send Alabama to its first-ever Final Four last year.

Playing another orange-colored team Tuesday night, Oats' confidence paid off.

“Jarin, we know can really shoot it, but he hasn’t shot it this well in a game yet this year,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said after the game. “But he did make five threes to send us to the Final Four last year when we beat Clemson in the Elite Eight. So he’s stepped up in big games before and had great shooting games. He ends up with a career-high.”

Stevenson scored Alabama’s first five points before missing a 3-point attempt at the 15:59 mark of the first half. He then proceeded to make his next six shots, including three from deep, while also knocking down all four of his free-throw attempts.

“It was definitely just like my teammates hitting me good,” Stevenson said following the game. “We call it 42 passes, hitting me in like a good shot pocket. I feel like that really helped them, just hitting me when I was open. And then, yeah, I’ve been working preparing, working on my footwork and stuff like that. So I feel like that really helped me have a night like this.”

Along with his scoring, Stevenson recorded four rebounds and a block. None of Alabama’s defenders managed to contain Texas’ Tre Johnson, who dropped a game-high 24 points on the night. However, Stevenson performed better than most against the SEC’s leading scorer.

“I think he’s been playing both physical, real aggressive, great defense,” Oats said. “He was our matchup to start with on Tre Johnson, who’s leading the league in scoring. And I thought he did a pretty good job, for the most part. So I think he’s been locked into the right stuff.

“Really happy to see him have a great shooting game like he did tonight.”

Alabama (21-3, 10-1) will hope Stevenson builds on his offensive breakout this weekend as the Tide takes on top-ranked Auburn (22-2, 10-1) on Saturday for first place in the SEC standings.

Good news for Alabama — the Tigers will be wearing Stevenson’s favorite color for the matchup.