No. 4 Alabama Basketball Defeats Vanderbilt, Keeps Pace with Top of SEC

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— The No. 4 Alabama basketball team made good on the first phase of freshman guard Labaron Philon’s word Tuesday night, protecting home court against a Vanderbilt squad with momentum from a weekend upset.
Philon's promise not to lose another home game, which he gave the Crimson Tide Sports Network days after the Jan. 14 loss to Ole Miss, is a long way off from being fully realized but had to start somewhere. The 103-87 victory over the Commodores (15-4, 3-3 SEC) accomplished the first step along the way. It was Alabama's sixth time this season scoring 100 points or more, shooting 56% from the field compared to 39% for Vanderbilt.
Point guard Mark Sears eclipsed 2,500 career points during the first half, only the 82nd men’s college basketball player to reach the milestone. A Coleman Coliseum crowd which braved bitter cold en route to the game gave Sears, one of the most impactful players to ever wear the Alabama uniform, an ovation.
"First off, I want to give all the honor and glory to God," Sears said. "I just want to thank all the great teammates I've had because without them I wouldn't be able to reach that milestone. To get an ovation from the crowd, especially being from Alabama, it just means so much to me... Just pouring in the hard work, and [it] take[s] care of itself. The game's gonna respect back. So, you know, it means a lot."
Head coach Nate Oats said he hopes to bring more players into the program with the work ethic of Sears. He pointed to Sears taking the initiative while at Ohio to become a better shooter, to where he is now among the very best at it in the entire country. "Congrats to Mark," Oats said. "Super happy for a kid that works that hard. I could roll with a kid with his work ethic the rest of my career."
Aden Holloway, who has five double-digit scoring efforts in six SEC games, made his first six shot attempts from the field and posted 16 of his 22 points in the first 20 minutes alone. This helped the Crimson Tide (16-3, 5-1 SEC) to a 48-31 advantage at the break. Sears and Holloway were in double figures by that point; no Commodores player held the same distinction. Five of the visitors finished the game with 10 points or more. Alabama had three players score 20-plus: Holloway, Sears and forward Mouhamed Dioubate, who won the Hard Hat.
"Last year was just abnormal for me. I felt like it was just completely downhill," Holloway said. "Super appreciative of all of them [coaches and teammates]. I would just say it feels a little more normal to get back to playing at a higher level."
Dioubate, whom Oats said plays hard axiomatically, suggested his play Tuesday was a response to being told to be more aggressive, with increased leeway from his head coach to score the basketball. The result? A double-double; he added 10 rebounds to his scoring total.
In a pivotal moment during the second half, Holloway and Chris Youngblood hit back-to-back triples, sending the crowd into a collective roar and eliciting a timeout from Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington with his team down 62-45 and 13:36 to play. Shortly before that point, the Commodores had managed to fight the deficit down to 10 points and had chances to shrink it further.
That didn't happen until the later stages of the contest, with the hand Vanderbilt was unable to topple a second consecutive top 10 team after beating Tennessee last Saturday. Alabama dialed up its intensity immensely as compared to its showdown against the Rebels, where the team was lackadaisical enough in defeat that Oats pointedly referred to the performance as disgusting. He also extended Monday's practice past its originally planned ending time, insistent that his team attack the day appropriately. He still wanted to see more from his squad defensively Tuesday.
"Some of our other guys [than Dioubate] are gonna have to pick up their defense for this team to be the level we want them to be at," Oats said. "Some guys are gonna have to decide how good they want to be and how much effort they want to give on the defensive end, because the effort we got in the second half's not gonna win us any championships this year." The Crimson Tide let up 56 second-half points.
There was still no question that it was a different energy surrounding Alabama following its 102-97 win over Kentucky this past weekend. Even with that triumph, as the Crimson Tide learned last week, it does not do to take a league opponent for granted on home court and it seems that message got through. Vanderbilt was game and clearly energized in its own right, even having finished ahead of Alabama in number of three-pointers made. Three teams entered Tuesday with one SEC loss (top-ranked Auburn remains the lone unbeaten in conference play), and the Crimson Tide will enter Saturday's game opposite LSU still among them, however many remain by then.
"I wanted to see where we were," Byington said. "We're not there yet to be able to beat a team like that... Alabama's as good as anybody at capitalizing on your mistakes. You make a mistake in transition, it's a three. You don't cover something right on a ball-screen coverage, it's a dunk. They're as good as anybody at taking advantage."