No. 16 Alabama stays hot in finale, tops fading Auburn
Labaron Philon Jr. and Aden Holloway scored 21 points apiece as No. 16 Alabama cruised to an easy 96-84 victory over Auburn on Saturday night in Southeastern Conference play at Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Amari Allen added 16 points, London Jemison scored 11 and Aiden Sherrell had 10 points and three blocked shots as the Crimson Tide (23-8, 13-5 SEC) won for the ninth time in 10 games. Alabama never trailed and led by as many as 28 while beating the Tigers for the sixth time in the past eight meetings.
In the teams' regular-season finale, Kevin Overton scored 24 points for fading Auburn (16-15, 7-11), which lost for the eighth time in 10 games. The Tigers are on the NCAA Tournament bubble but aren't helping themselves by losing five straight road games with three of the previous four coming against unranked foes.
Tahaad Pettiford added 19 points and four steals and Keyshawn Hall scored 13 points for Auburn. Elyjah Freeman had 11 points for the Tigers.
Alabama made 52.2% of its field-goal attempts, including 7 of 27 from 3-point range. The Crimson Tide held a 42-28 rebounding advantage.
Auburn connected on 50.8% of its shots and made 8 of 23 from behind the arc.
Philon scored 16 points in the first half as Alabama led 51-30 at the break.
The Crimson Tide scored the game's first eight points and Philon had 11 of Alabama's 21 points during the first eight minutes.
Alabama later rattled off 12 consecutive points, taking a 41-21 lead on Holloway's two free throws with 5:18 remaining.
The hosts' lead was 22 after Jemison's putback with 4:12 left in the half.
The game remained uncompetitive for most of the second half. Holloway's 3-pointer made it 67-39 with 14:55 remaining.
The Tigers trailed by 16 just past the midway point of the half before the Crimson Tide answered with an 8-2 run. Allen's layup capped the spurt to make it 79-57 with 7:15 to play.
Desperate Auburn kept its starters in until the finish, even after Alabama cleared its bench, as it attempted to reduce the losing margin for NCAA Tournament resume purposes.