Tennessee basketball sits in the same trough for the fifth time this season.
The Vols did everything right on paper. It recorded the sixth-most offensive rebounds in a game in program history, committed a season-low six turnovers and received offensive contributions outside of Nate Ament — who played 11 minutes with a first-half injury limiting him. Ja’Kobi Gillespie even tied his own single-game record for steals with eight.
But when the buzzer sounded, the Vols blew a double-digit lead — just as it did against Kentucky twice, Kansas and Missouri. The Crimson Tide broke a five-game losing streak to Tennessee, 71-69. Alabama only led once in the game, and it came in the final 22 seconds.
“It’s not the blown leads,” head coach Rick Barnes said. “It’s playing 40 minutes. That’s what it is.”
Tennessee shot 12-for-29 on layups — a recurring theme this season. It shot an abysmal 37% from the field in the second half, receiving zero points over the final 2:09. It allowed Alabama to make seven of its final nine shots.
The Vols pulled in 17 more rebounds than Alabama, including a plus-16 advantage on the offensive end. That led to 25 second-chance points on 25 opportunities, which is an inefficient mark for a team that relies on offensive rebounds more than made shots.
As a result, Tennessee attempted 22 more shots than the Tide — but only made five more in the loss. Alabama made up the differential with six more made 3-pointers and six more free-throw makes.
“(Barnes’) comment to me as soon as he shook my hand was, ‘Man, after the way that game went last year, you guys deserve this win,’” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “It’s great that we got the win, I’m not sure we necessarily deserved it, but we did fight hard.”
Ament went down with 7:42 left in the first half after a loose ball scrum made its way to the ground. He played two minutes in the second half, and Tennessee had to operate without its leading scorer.
The Vols did it for a small portion of time. Tennessee outscored the Tide 18-12 to take a 40-28 lead into the locker rooms.
But it was the start of the second stanza that hurt the Vols. Alabama missed the first shot, then rattled off four straight makes to cut the Tennessee lead to six. The Vols did what it could to tango, but the adrenaline eventually wore off.
Alabama shot 51.7% from the field in the second half, only finding the bottom of the net five times from beyond the arc. Labaron Philon (15), Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (14) and Aden Holloway (10) all eclipsed double-digits in the second half alone.
When the Tide tied the game with 1:11 left on a Holloway jumper, Tennessee got a response from J.P. Estrella. Oats turned to Philon for the first chance to take the lead, and he drained it on a free-throw line pull-up.
Tennessee put the ball in Gillespie’s hands, and he missed a point-blank layup for the chance to send the game to overtime.
“We were going to take it hard to the basket there (on the final possession) and thought if we could get it on the glass, score it or get an offensive rebound, but it didn’t work our way,” Barnes said. “Last year it did. Tonight it didn’t.”
Perhaps the biggest loss centered around Ament is the lack of pressure it put on the referees. Ament has attempted 207 free throws this season, 95 more than second-place Gillespie. Tennessee’s eight attempted free throws are the lowest in a game this season, easily surpassing the next fewest of 12 against Gardner-Webb.
The second-half horrors continue for a team that has held a double-digit lead in five of its nine losses — four coming in SEC play, and two in the same week.
“I mean, I think when we go up just playing with the same intensity that got us the lead,” Gillespie said. “I feel like when we go up we start relaxing or maybe not playing as hard and we just got to keep the same intensity for 40 minutes.”
