TUSCALOOSA — Alabama senior night was spoiled at the hands of No. 5 Florida. The Gators handed the Crimson Tide a 99-94 loss Wednesday night, souring what Alabama was hoping to be a sweet moment for the Tide’s five senior players.

Instead of celebrating those accomplishments, Alabama’s elder players will be left thinking about what adjustments they could have made to counter Florida’s second-half run that turned a streaky game into a comfortable win for the Gators. Florida’s defense and Alabama’s failure to match the Gators' effort on the glass and defensive end costs Alabama a second straight defeat and leave coach Nate Oats searching for answers with one regular season game to go.

Here are three takeaways from Alabama's loss to Florida.

Mark Sears' first 11 points of the game didn’t come in his usual scoring package. Florida’s defense made shots from beyond the arc difficult and ran Alabama off the 3-point line early, but the Tide’s veteran didn’t waver. Sears hit difficult layups, floaters, and yes, even a few midrange shots to score 16 points in the first half. Clifford Omoruyi had one of his better games in a Tide uniform in a matchup that featured plenty of paint scoring. Omoruyi finished with 11 points, seven rebounds, one block and a steal.

For as tough as Florida defended, Alabama did a decent job of limiting open looks the Gators got from beyond the arc. Florida shot just 29.6% from 3, but responded to Alabama’s defense by getting looks inside. Florida constantly got the ball into the paint off backdoor cuts or fed it to a big who made a delayed cut through the lane. Gators forward Alex Condon constantly burned Alabama on backdoor cuts, half-court actions and caught several lobs as he led Florida with 27 points.

There was plenty of contact throughout Wednesday’s game. Oats even called a timeout with 4:26 left in the first half to bark at the refs for what he thought was a foul on Alabama’s previous possession. The Tide continued to draw fouls in the second half but failed to capitalize from the line for a second game in a row. After shooting just 65.4% against Tennessee, Alabama made just 68% of its free throws.

While Alabama got into the lane and hit some tough looks early, it failed to match Florida enough with that type of scoring and decent shot selection continued to be limited. The Tide upped its 3-point percentage to 42.9% in the second half and Sears finished 30 points but shot just 2 of 10 from deep. Labaron Philon did his best to keep Alabama in it, finishing with 19 points, five rebounds and four assists.

Alabama managed to generate 18 assists compared to six turnovers against a quality Florida defensive outfit. Despite the ball movement and second-half scoring, the Tide couldn’t generate enough open looks from deep early and continued another trend from the Tennessee game as it struggled to convert on layup attempts. The Tide finished 48.1% on layups, with many of its looks inside contested. Despite 48 points in the paint, Alabama finished below 50% on looks at the rim for a second game in a row and was held to 1.05 points per possession in the first half.

One silver lining for the Tide, freshman Aiden Sherrell had one of the best games of his young college career. The freshman scored 10 points and finished plus-6 in 10 minutes on the floor.

Florida’s paint dominance was also fueled by dominating the glass on both ends. The Gators boast a balanced lineup, with bigs like Condon and Rueben Chinyelu able to clean up any misses by their talented guards and deny easy looks in the paint.

The Gators bigs helped them out-rebounded Alabama 49-34 Wednesday night. Florida grabbed 16 offensive rebounds to just 10 for the Tide. The Gators turned those boards into 19 second-chance points, which contributed to the difference in the game Wednesday.

Chinyelu and Condon went back and forth for the rebounding crown, with the former ended up taking it with 11 boards. Condon completed a double-double, adding 10 rebounds to his 25 points.

Alabama's effort on the glass was not nearly as strong as it was in a narrow loss to Tennessee. The Tide's inability to put enough pressure on the offensive glass, combined with another game struggling on layups and free throws, doomed it in a game where it shot just 31.8% from 3. Omoruyi was able to couple a team-high seven rebounds with a decent night offensively, but just two of his boards came on the offensive end. Alabama's leading rebounder Grant Nelson finished with just four rebounds.

Both teams seemed to generate scoring before their respective offenses disappeared for large stretches in the first half. But it was the Gators who played with more effort and made more adjustments to find the game-sealing run in the final period.

After Alabama took a 55-52 lead with 15:24 to go, Florida went on a 13-3 run and never looked back. The Gators continued to torch Alabama in the lane and ran out in transition, scoring 22 fastbreak points. Too often, Alabama's defense wasn't set and the Gators averaged 1.56 points per possession in the second half. In the halfcourt, Florida's quick cuts and off-ball movement tormented the Tide all game.

Florida found consistency after its early steakiness. The Gators started the game 0 of 4 from the field before making their next six shots, followed by four straight misses again. Alabama’s best scoring stretch in the first half came with a bigger lineup that included Sherrell, Mouhamed Dioubate and Jarin Stevenson. The group went on a 13-3 scoring run that bridged the under-12-minute media timeout.

The Tide went on a few smaller runs throughout the first half but failed to close out the first 20 minutes positively for a second straight game. Alabama went on a 9-0 run heading into the final minute of play, but Florida scored five points in 17 seconds to take a four-point lead into the break. The Gators sucked the energy out of Coleman in the Tide’s final home game, and were able to capitalize on that momentum in the second half.

Alabama finishes its season with a rematch against No. 1 Auburn on Saturday. The Tigers (27-3, 18-2 SEC) have already locked up the SEC regular season title but lost to No. 22 Texas A&M in its most recent game Tuesday night. Auburn beat Alabama 94-85 on Feb. 15 inside Coleman Coliseum the last time the two sides met.