Two top-10 teams fall as Alabama and Northwestern pull off upsets over in-state foes
A wild night weekday night in college basketball saw two of the nation’s hottest teams fall as Alabama ended No. 8 Auburn’s 11-game win-streak and Northwestern handed No. 10 Illinois a road loss.
Here’s how it happened:
Auburn loses the ‘Iron Bowl of Basketball’: Alabama men’s hoops top the No. 8 Tigers in perimeter showcase
Not the Iron Bowl that’s traditionally played on the gridiron, but one that’s played off the iron.
Down 72-75 with 0:12 on the clock, Auburn’s Chad Mazara-Baker was sent to the line to shoot three. Mazara-Baker made his first two, but missed the game-tying shot. After Alabama went 2-2 from the line, Auburn’s Jaylin Williams went 1-2 on his foul shot attempts, granting the Tide the cushion to win the game, 79-75.
But there’s a lot more to the story of Auburn losing the iron ball, involving the Crimson Tide’s domination from afar and Grant Nelson’s posterizing abilities in this 79-75 dub for Nate Oats’ premier offense.
A run-of-the-mill start, the Tigers leapt to an eight-point advantage… That was until Rylan Griffen stepped back from the charity stripe. The sophomore guard let three perfect triples fly in a 14-2 run to overcome Alabama’s deficit. Jarin Stevenson and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. joined the perimeter party and before their rivals knew it, the Crimson Tide were up 44-30 at the break, shooting 47% from three.
FINAL STATS: How Alabama held off No. 8 Auburn
With momentum turning to Auburn coming out of halftime, it took the Tide almost five minutes to get points on the board, but Grant Nelson’s backhanded dunk might’ve been worth the wait.
GRANT WITH THE POSTER 🤯
📺: @espn#RollTide | #BlueCollarBasketball pic.twitter.com/IurhmMo7HR
— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) January 25, 2024
With Alabama’s Lior Berman on skates to maintain his matchup with Griffen, Mark Sears exploded with eight points in four minutes. The teams traded three pointers and kept the game tight down the stretch, until Nelson crammed another dunk to spark Alabama’s final run, capped off by Auburn’s foul shots scraping off the iron.
Alabama out-rebounded the Tigers 46-41, and those boards counted more too, with the Tide scoring 21 second-chance points to Auburn’s 12. Johni Broome played the starring role on Auburn’s defensive effort, slapping down a season-high five blocks and grabbing 10 defensive rebounds. Broome also led the Tigers in scoring with his eighth double-double of the season (25 points, 14 rebounds), and got fouled out just before Alabama’s final drive of the game.
The Tide have now won three straight versus their in-state rivals and move to 13-6, as No. 8 Auburn (16-3) might kiss its top-10 ranking goodbye.
Northwestern beats its second top-10 team of the season behind Boo Buie’s big night
Boo Buie notched another impressive late game performance in his Big Ten career, with 29 points to lead his Northwestern team to a 96-91 overtime win over No. 10 Illinois.
Illinois led Northwestern by two points late, but fifth-year senior Boo Buie found space and hit a game-tying layup with just over 20 seconds remaining to force overtime. The Wildcats and Illini went shot-for-shot all night, with the largest lead of the game coming in overtime.
The game-tying Buie bucket 👻 pic.twitter.com/ADaK8JwoVR
— Northwestern Basketball (@NUMensBball) January 25, 2024
In overtime, Buie stayed hot, scoring eight of his 29 points in the extra five minutes.
📊 FINAL STATS: How the Wildcats pulled away from Illinois in OT
Brooks Barnhizer added 23 points to the Wildcats’ tally on 4-6 shooting from three. Northwestern was on fire from deep all night, but especially late in the game. The ‘Cats were 3-3 from deep in overtime, and shot 11-18 (61.1%) from three on the night.
Coleman Hawkins had 23 points and 13 rebounds for Illinois on Wednesday, but it wasn’t enough to stave off the road upset.
With the result, both Illinois and Northwestern move to 5-3 in Big Ten play and now sit two games back of Wisconsin.
