Grant Nelson and the No. 7 Alabama Crimson Tide stunned No. 1 Auburn 93-91 in overtime Saturday afternoon in the regular season-finale.
“As a team, I thought we had too many defensive breakdowns… As a result, they had some better looks at the rim… Very similar to what Texas A&M did”, said head coach Bruce Pearl.
There are two keys to winning in March. Free throws and rebounding. The Tigers shot 64% from the charity stripe this afternoon which came back to haunt them. Freshman guard Tahaad Pettiford went to the line for the Tigers with 2:24 to go in regulation with Auburn trailing by one. Pettiford, who is a 80.9% free throw shooter, made one of three attempts which killed Auburn’s momentum.
Alabama big men Grant Nelson and Clifford Omoruyi were the difference in the Iron Bowl rematch.
They both helped the Crimson Tide seize control on the glass, out rebounding Auburn 41-33 as a team. Nelson and Omoruyi both posted eight rebounds which led the way for the Tide. Omoruyi shot 7-7 from the field with multiple clutch offensive putbacks which were total backbreakers for Auburn.
“Our front line has to defend better. Our front line has to rebound better. Chaney (Johnson), Dylan (Cardwell) and Johni (Broome) have to defend better against the teams we’ve been beaten by,” Pearl said.
Nelson was the leading scorer for Alabama posting 23 points, 12 of which came in the first half. Auburn had no answers for Nelson as he was scoring at will from both the paint and behind the arc. Nelson finished 53% from the field and 50% from downtown.
“We’re in the postseason now, and the postseason is about-step up… Grant Nelson showed step-up tonight,” Pearl said.
Coming into today, Nelson has been struggling offensively. Prior to today, Nelson has scored ten or more points just once in the last five games. Nelson gave all of the credit to his teammates on helping him break out of his slump.
“They’ve been giving me confidence and then we’ve been doing a lot in practice,” Nelson said. “But, I mean, the coaches drawing up plays for me to get downhill really helped, and then that kind of got me going.”
Nelson is one of those players in college basketball where you either love him or hate him. Nelson plays with a ton of swagger and isn’t afraid to show it, especially on the road in the Iron Bowl. With 8:42 to go in the first half, Nelson drove aggressively to the bucket and dunked over Dylan Cardwell. Nelson immediately taunted Auburn by hitting the “Crimson Crane” right in front of Johni Broome. The sold-out Neville Arena crowd pleaded for a technical foul but ultimately nothing was called.
Nelson on trolling Auburn with the crane: “I don’t know. I just decided to. It was the first thing in my head. He was standing in front of me. I don’t know. I just did it.”
Alabama star Mark Sears was held in check for most of the day but with less than one second remaining in overtime, Sears hit a left handed floater to spoil the Tigers’ senior day and leave the Auburn family stunned.
Auburn will head to Nashville, TN looking to bounce back in the SEC Tournament. The Tigers hold the No. 1 seed and all of their games will be televised on ESPN.
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Rory is a freshman majoring in journalism sports production. He started with The Plainsman in the spring of 2025.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @RorymGarvin
