No. 25 Alabama Basketball Upset by Texas A&M, 87-71
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A decent night of shooting from the floor didn't make up for costly turnovers by No. 25 Alabama basketball on Wednesday night, as the Crimson Tide fell to the Texas A&M Aggies 87-71 inside Coleman Coliseum.
19 Crimson Tide turnovers led to 29 points for the Aggies, resulting in Alabama's 11th loss of the season.
"Obviously a disappointing loss," Alabama coach Nate Oats said after the game. "The last home game, thought we'd give better effort and we didn't. [...] They outrebounded us, turned us over 19 times — mainly the effort they beat us on."
The first half half was a back-and-forth affair, with neither the Crimson Tide nor the Aggies being able to gain much of a lead in either direction. Both teams turned over the ball nine times in the first 20 minutes, resulting in multiple missed scoring opportunities. Alabama and Texas A&M also each capitalized with 14 points off of turnovers.
At the 12:15 mark, the Aggies held their largest lead of the opening half, 17-12. At the 1:35 mark, the Crimson Tide had fought back to its largest lead, 38-32.
Junior guard Jaden Shackelford was the lone standout for Alabama in the first half, totaling 12 points thanks to three made 3-pointers. The Crimson Tide was also a perfect 5-of-5 from the free-throw line, with Shackelford leading the way with three free throws.
Texas A&M opened the second half by scoring eight unanswered points, pulling out to a five-point lead. A jumper by senior guard Keon Ellis, followed by a fastbreak layup pulled Alabama within three at the 15:49 mark. An and-1 opportunity by Ellis put the Crimson Tide down by just two.
While Shackelford carried the workload for the offense in the first half, Ellis was the workhorse for the Crimson Tide in the second. At the under-12 media timeout, Ellis 11 points, keeping Alabama within a four-point striking distance of Texas A&M.
Time was running out for the Crimson Tide, though. While Alabama's offense began to show improvement, its defense began to display less effort. The Crimson Tide was scoring at a solid pace, but it was giving up just as many points at the opposite end of the court.
"I feel like number one, we gotta be tougher," Shackelford said after the game. "We knew Texas A&M was a tough team — top three in the country in turning people over — so we knew we had to be tougher in that aspect of taking over the ball.
"We just gotta be sharper. It's March now. It's time for us to really hone in on what needs to be done going into every game."
With just over nine minutes left to play, Texas A&M was shooting 54% from the floor and 36% from beyond the arc. Alabama was at 49% from the floor and 32% from 3-point territory.
At the under-eight media timeout, the Aggies had built up a nine-point lead powered by four points from forward Henry Coleman III. Alabama's 15 turnovers had gifted Texas A&M 25 points, while the Crimson Tide had failed to gain a single point from the Aggies' four second-half turnovers.
With 5:25 left in the game, Texas A&M had built up a 74-61 lead. Any energy that Alabama had left was drained by back-to-back 3s by Aggies guard Tyrece Radford. A responding 3-pointer by Shackelford evoked a small response from the crowd inside Coleman, but it was too little, too late for Alabama.
The Crimson Tide was upset by the Aggies by a final score of 87-71.
Shackelford finished the game with 16 points, the most for Alabama. Quinerly was just behind him with 14 points, while Ellis finished the game with 13 points. The trio were the only Crimson Tide players to finish with double-digit points on the night.
Guard Quenton Jackson led all Aggies with a whopping 28 points, while Radford placed second with 22. Coleman was the final Texas A&M player with double-digit points with 18, but added 11 rebounds for a double-double.
With the loss, Alabama drops to 19-11 on the season and is 9-8 in SEC play. Texas A&M rises to 19-11 with the win and is 8-9 in the conference. The Crimson Tide will close out the regular season on Saturday at LSU (11 a.m. CT, CBS).
"The end's gonna come quick if this is the effort we get," Oats said. "We're as good as our effort is and it'd be really disappointing for some of these guys to end their career here at Alabama with these type of losses."
Gallery: Alabama Basketball Falls to Texas A&M
