Alabama's Lone In-State Player Dominates in Victory Over Auburn

AUBURN, Ala. — The Crimson Tide's basketball roster has players from all over the country, and guard Labaron Philon Jr. is the only one from Alabama.

Alabama outlasted Auburn 96-92 on Saturday in Neville Arena. The Crimson Tide is well aware of the bitter rivalry that comes with the Iron Bowl of Basketball, but only Philon, a Mobile native, grew up with it.

Philon was a game-time decision for this one due to a thigh bruise. However, Alabama head coach Nate Oats said before the game that his star guard would "give it a go," and "hopefully when he gets warm he'll look closer to 100 percent."

Philon committed three turnovers within the first few minutes. But a switch flipped and he certainly looked 100 percent from then on, as he finished with 25 points, five rebounds and six assists.

"He's super talented," Oats said during the postgame press conference. "He got it going, made some tough shots, bailed us out when we had some really bad possessions late. We like to keep the turnovers down, he had three right out of the gate, so to only have one for the rest of the game was a lot better.

"We've got to continue to get him to keep his turnovers down. In these games, we play a lot better when he's not turning the ball over, losing it. But he did lead us in assists with six. was 25, six and five [rebounds], pretty good night.

"It's nice to have an in-state kid play really well in the in-state rivalry game. But shoot, if we needed anybody to play well, we need him to play well in every game. So not sure if it means any anymore [in a rivalry game], but he's been good in a lot of games for us. He was good today."

The in-state sophomore came into this one with a bit of a chip on his shoulder, as Philon not only leads Alabama, but is at the top of the SEC in points per game with 21.4. Auburn forward Keyshawn Hall is second in the conference with 20.9 points per game, and he finished with a very respectable 17 points.

Philon was one of numerous players to withdraw from the 2025 NBA Draft, and that includes Auburn sophomore guard Tahaad Pettiford. Pettiford was consistently put in the same tier as Philon in the months before and after they with withdrew. Philon also outdueled Pettidord, as he also tallied 17 points.

Auburn head coach Steven Pearl commended Tigers forward Sebastian Williams-Adams for doing "an unbelievable job of guarding" Philon. But he couldn't say the same for the rest of the team.

"I thought two of his threes were just heavily contested stepbacks, and that's going to happen sometimes, Pearl said. "He is an unbelievable player. He's going to be a first-round draft pick. He does those types of things.

"The parts that we've got to be able to control was, we close to him and we let him drive it right. You just can't do that because he's too good of a player going downhill to his right and they'll take full advantage of it.

"He plays with great tempo and great pace. He's physical offensively and he did a great job for them tonight. If [Williams-Adams] wasn't guarding him, then he was having a lot of success."

Alabama's Lone In-State Player Dominates in Victory Over Auburn

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