Alabama sputtered out of the gate in its SEC home opener. The Crimson Tide struggled against a disciplined and defensively stout South Carolina side in the first half, but it wouldn't last long.

Spearheaded by the SEC’s leading scorer, the Crimson Tide made its run. South Carolina went ice cold on the road in the second half and Alabama turned the screws. After taking a one point lead into halftime, the Crimson Tide left no doubt in the final period, cruising to a 74-47 victory over the Gamecocks.

Here are three takeaways from the Crimson Tide’s second win in SEC play:

Mark Sears refused to lose.

Alabama needed everything and more from its superstar guard Tuesday. Sears delivered on both ends of the floor to help navigate the Crimson Tide to its second victory in SEC play.

With South Carolina playing strong team defense, Sears took over and finished with 31 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Sears was Alabama’s entire offense in the first half matching the scoring output of his teammates with 15 points in the opening period.

"First half he held us in there," Alabama coach Nate Oats said. "We were struggling in the first half to score and we had too many turnovers. We played an awful first half, probably as bad a half as we played all year and somehow we're still up one in large part due to Mark."

Sears stepped up once again as the Crimson Tide’s lead guard, making plays for others and taking over when Alabama needed him most. His play quickly rubbed off on his partner in crime in Alabama’s backcourt, Aaron Estrada. He scored 10 points in the second half and finished with 17.

Sears finished just four points shy of matching his career high of 35, which he's scored on two occasions most recently in Alabama's loss to Purdue.

In that loss, Alabama showed that through Sears the Crimson Tide can compete with the best teams in the country, but came up short against the Boilermakers despite having the lead in the second half. After Tuesday's game, Oats said that Sears not only took the lead in scoring but galvanized the team at halftime, telling them to see the game out, which has been a struggle for Alabama against quality opponents.

As the former Crimson Tide coach so often said, it was truly a tale of two halves defensively for each side.

South Carolina marched into Coleman Coliseum and made Alabama uncomfortable in the opening period. The Gamecocks forced six first-half Alabama turnovers, including four in the opening five minutes. South Carolina forced difficult shots and was quick on its rotations when Alabama swung the ball around in its half court offense.

The Gamecocks' high-level scoring defense, which was the nation's 18th best and allowed just 63 points per game was unable to sustain itself against KenPom’s No. 1 rated offense in the second half, however. The Crimson Tide outscored South Carolina 24-5 to start the final period and quickly eliminated any chance at a dramatic finish in Tuscaloosa.

That run was spearheaded by strong efforts on the defensive end by the Crimson Tide, which forced South Carolina to miss its first 10 shots of the second half. The Gamecocks coughed up 17 turnovers, which is the most the Crimson Tide has forced this season.

"When you turn the ball over four your first five possessions you don't help your defense out," Oats said. "So if you take away the beginning of the game I think by far probably the last 35, 36 minutes this game, it's by far been our best defensive performance of the year."

While Alabama’s starting guards excelled, forward Grant Nelson had a forgettable outing Tuesday.

Just like the rest of the Crimson Tide aside from Sears, Nelson was quiet in the first half, but just couldn’t get comfortable even as Alabama’s lead ballooned in the second period. Nelson finished with zero points and took just three shots from the field.

"We need him to get a little tougher and go get some more offensive rebounds," Oats said. "He played 24 minutes, we need him to come up with some offensive boards and make a difference that way."

While Nelson struggled, the rest of Alabama’s forwards stepped up. The Crimson Tide had a shorthanded frontcourt with starting center Mohamed Wague missing Tuesday’s game due to a foot injury. Nick Pringle replaced Wague in the starting lineup and had a productive outing with three points, four assists, two rebounds and a pair of blocks. He also led Alabama in blue collar points.

"His mentality changed," Sears said. "He was phenomenal tonight. We need Nick to play like that every night and when he does that this team is very dangerous."

Off the bench, Mouhamed Dioubate, who Oats said has been playing well in practice recently, finished with three points, six rebounds, one assist, one block and a steal. After the game, Oats complimented Dioubate's toughness and once again said he would be getting more minutes.

"Mo is just a guy that's gonna play hard," Estrada said. "Grab the rebounds, be physical with their guys and that's what we need. [Those are] blue collar plays, so I think he did a good job today."

While the Crimson Tide once again displayed its depth of scoring and had a couple frontcourt players step up, Nelson's will look to bounce back after a poor start to SEC play. He's scored just nine points and shot a combined 3-for-8 from the field in Alabama's two conference games so far.

Alabama will look to build off of its 2-0 start in the SEC when it hits the road against Mississippi State on Saturday. The Crimson Tide faces the Bulldogs at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Starkville, Mississippi.