Thanks to the winter storm that swept through The Plains earlier this week, the Auburn men's basketball team had to wait an extra day before taking the court against in-state rival Alabama on Thursday night.
The postponement made it exactly 358 days -- one week shy of an entire calendar year -- since Auburn's last conference win on the hardwood.
The long wait for an SEC victory is now over for head coach Tony Barbee's squad.
Senior forward Chris Denson scored a career-high 32 points to lead Auburn to a streak-snapping 74-55 victory against Alabama at Auburn Arena.
The Tigers, whose last SEC victory came at home against the Crimson Tide on Feb. 6, 2013, held their rivals to just 36 percent shooting in another defensive-minded win for Barbee's team.
"I'm proud of the guys and the way they fought, especially on defense," Barbee said. "Their energy this week has been great. Their effort has been great. I'm proud that they were able to finish one off tonight and get the rewards of their hard work."
Junior guard KT Harrell added 23 points and 11 rebounds for a double-double in his first rivalry game as a Tiger, giving one of the nation's top scoring duos as many points as the entire Alabama offense Thursday night.
"Breaking the streak against Alabama is big," Harrell said. "We can move on from it now. It's not that we were lingering on it, but we still had it in the back of our minds. Now we feel like we can win several games down the road."
Alabama's top scorer Trevor Releford was held to only 15 points as he was the only Crimson Tide player to score in double digits.
"I thought Auburn's energy right from the jump was the difference in the game," said Alabama head coach Anthony Grant. "They played with a passion and an energy that we weren't able to match."
Auburn raced to an early 14-3 lead thanks to accurate shooting out of the gate and a stifling defense. The Crimson Tide hit only one of its first seven shots and turned the ball over six times in the opening five minutes of Thursday night's game.
Alabama fought back to trail just by five late in the first half, but senior forward Allen Payne hit a midrange jumper with one second left to give Auburn a 30-22 lead heading into halftime.
Halftime featured the presentation of the Foy-ODK Sportsmanship Trophy to Gus Malzahn and the Auburn football team for its 34-28 victory against Alabama in the Iron Bowl -- exactly two months before Thursday night's basketball game.
"I'm here to tell you, this trophy, it's going to be here for a while," Malzahn said to thunderous applause.
The energy from the trophy presentation continued into the second half on the hardwood. Denson scored 26 of his 32 points after halftime, and Harrell netted 12 of his 23 in the final 20 minutes.
"I had a shaky first half," Denson said. "The coaches talked to me at halftime, and KT grabbed me individually to say that he needed me in the second half. So that's what I did -- attack, attack, attack."
The Tigers ended the game on a 9-3 run in front of a near-sellout crowd at Auburn Arena.
"We were just so turned up today," Denson said. "The Jungle was rocking today. They got us so hype today. If we come out there with that kind of energy every day, we are going to win a lot of games."
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