History was made in Coleman Coliseum on Tuesday night.
No. 4 Auburn came to Tuscaloosa to face off against a three-point favorite in No. 24 Alabama. Auburn left a 81-77 victor and the Tigers will be karate kicking all the way home.
“When you beat a ranked team on the road, you have really done something,” head coach Bruce Pearl said.
The first iteration of the 2022 Iron Bowl of basketball lived up to every bit of hype it could have mustered.
Jabari Smith recorded a career-high 25 points, Wendell Green added 19 and Allen Flannigan hit four straight free throws with under a minute to go to silence the Tide.
Pearl post-game said Flanigan’s performance was game-changing.
"I told him after the game, 'You made history tonight,’” Pearl said.
With 8:33 left in the contest, Walker Kessler scored his first bucket and only bucket on a dunk. On any other night, that could certainly signals a dismal showing for Auburn, but instead the Tigers had a 13 point lead.
At the 4:04 mark, the game was suddenly tied at 73 apiece. Kessler fouled out a minute prior, and Alabama’s home court was practically shaking.
Smith hit two free throws to put Auburn ahead a pair, but Alabama responded with two of its own, tying the game at 75.
K.D. Johnson, a minute later, scored his usual flailing layup at the rim to put Auburn back up two.
Two more Alabama free throws tied the contest yet again, with 102 seconds left. The in-state rivals were locked at 77 points and the momentum was not favoring the team in orange.
But Flanigan did not care. With the game on the line, and Auburn’s perfect SEC record hanging in the balance, Flanigan sunk two pairs of free throws to push the game to its final score and sent Alabama fans flooding to the exits. Before tonight, Flanigan was 1-4 on free throws.
“Coming into this game, I knew it would come to the last final minutes,” Flanigan said.
Following Flanigan’s fourth made free-throw, Alabama’s Jahvon Quinerly ran down the court and attempted a three. What he met instead was the palm of Dylan Cardwell.
Cardwell sent Quinerly’s shot halfway down the court and K.D. Johnson was able to run out almost all of the usable clock.
Off the bench in relief of Kessler, Cardwell had six points, six rebounds and four blocks. Cardwell also logged 18 minutes.
"His physicality was huge. It was next man up,” Pearl said.
According to Smith, Cardwell was the most important player on the court tonight.
"He is a great presence. He is never going to lay down. Dylan stepped up big. He was the most important player tonight,” Smith said.
Smith may think that Cardwell was the most important player tonight, but to most everyone else watching the game, it was the teenager from Georgia that stole the show.
In 34 minutes, Smith hit 50% of his threes, snagged six boards and blocked four shots. He was all over the place, and his signature fadeaway shot from the elbow was unguardable.
"It felt great. We knew this would be tough,” Smith said. “We just came out here and focused on staying together. Stay poised, shoot my shots."
Auburn’s sixth man in the stands was a crucial element to Auburn’s success, said the team and Pearl. Throughout a sea of red and black, the orange-clad fans cheered with rigor for the entire game, forcing the Alabama’s home PA to raise the volume on its music.
“We can’t hear you” chants did not come from the home crowd, but yet the Auburn fans who travelled from all over the country to support their team. The reward was seeing Auburn through to its 12-straight win.
“The Auburn family turned out. Our fans are traveling and it is exciting. Our fans are traveling like Kentucky fans now. This is something else,” Pearl said.
Post-game, Auburn players hit Alabama football Jameson Williams’ famous touchdown celebrating: a crane kick. Flanigan said the team doing the kick was to send a message for the next time these two teams meet.
January 11, 2022; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; K.D. Johnson (0) strikes a "Crimson Crane" pose after Auburn defeated Alabama in the Iron Bowl of basketball.
“The football team did it to us. So we stole that move,” Flanigan said. “It felt great to get one-up on them. They gotta come back to The Jungle."
Auburn will hit the road again to take on Ole Miss on Saturday. But that is a problem for tomorrow. For Pearl, tonight is about celebrating a monumental victory. Karate kicks and all.
“You win at Alabama, you make history,” Pearl said.
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Henry Zimmer is from Jacksonville, Florida, and is currently in his fifth year with The Plainsman. He is currently the Assistant Sports Editor and can be followed on Twitter here: @henryzimmer
