Alabama hopes to hang onto first in SEC, faces Texas A&M

With help from its hated in-state rival, No. 15 Alabama regained the Southeastern Conference lead Wednesday night.

No. 13 Auburn destroyed No. 11 South Carolina 101-61 in Auburn, Ala., tying the two teams for second in the conference — a half-game behind the Crimson Tide (17-7, 9-2 SEC). Fresh off a midweek break, Alabama will return to action late Saturday morning when Texas A&M visits Tuscaloosa.

Alabama has been idle since outscoring LSU 109-92 on Feb. 10 in Baton Rouge, the second time this season the team has scored 109 points against the Tigers. For coach Nate Oats, the next step is getting his team's defense up to the offense's level.

"We've got a lot of offensive firepower," he said. "We're liable to explode at any point. If we can get our defense better, we can be a pretty dominant team."

The Tide lead Division I in scoring at 90.3 points per game and do so efficiently. Per KenPom.com's adjusted metrics, they average 126.5 points per 100 possessions while playing the 15th-fastest tempo and boasting the seventh-best effective field goal percentage at 57.2.

Mark Sears is enjoying a banner season, averaging 20.5 ppg and sinking 51.3 percent of his shots. Aaron Estrada (12.9), Grant Nelson (12.0) and Rylan Griffen (11.0) are also in extra digits, with Latrell Wrightsell not far behind at 8.7.

It was Wrightsell who punished LSU off the bench with six 3-pointers and 21 points, pleasing Oats with his willingness to launch from deep.

"I get irritated with him when he passes up open shots," Oats said. "He's such a good shooter."

About that defense? There's certainly room to improve, judging from the Tigers' 55 percent accuracy last week. But Alabama was able to force 12 turnovers that led to 23 points and earned a 43-31 advantage on the boards.

Meanwhile, Texas A&M (15-9, 6-5) suffered a potentially devastating loss for their NCAA Tournament at-large hopes Tuesday night at Vanderbilt. Ezra Manjon converted a floater as time expired to secure a 74-73 decision for the Commodores over the Aggies.

The differences that led to Manjon's winning shot came via offensive rebounding, turnovers and shot attempts. The Aggies allowed 12 offensive boards — marking just the third time this season they were beaten in that facet — and committed 12 turnovers.

That gave the Commodores 12 more shots than Texas A&M, including the last one that Manjon cashed in to create the outcome.

"I thought they beat us from start to finish," Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said. "We were way too volatile and not good enough at the things that we have to be good enough at. We didn't do enough, long enough, to be good enough to win."

The Aggies wasted a rare night of accurate shooting, going 51.1 percent from the field and 8-of-18 on 3-pointers. They are 332nd in Division I in field goal percentage at 40.1 and 345th in 3-point shooting at 27.7 percent.

Wade Taylor IV is the team's top scorer at 19.8 ppg, while Tyrece Radford averages 15.1.

This is the only meeting of the season between the teams.

—Field Level Media