Alabama Gose Into Trade For…..

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It’s a fact that Nate Oats has preached for multiple weeks: in four of Alabama’s five losses, the Crimson Tide held at least a 6-point second half lead, and gave it away.

On the road in its first SEC game of the season, Alabama found itself in the same position: up by a few possessions, with the clock winding down late in the game.

This time, the Crimson Tide was able to come away with a win, but it wasn’t pretty. After leading by as many as 18 in the game and by 11 with 3:30 to go, the final score on the Memorial Gymnasium jumbotron read Alabama 78, Vanderbilt 75.

“Road wins are not easy,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said after the game. “Obviously it was not one of our better performances, but we’ll take a road win to start out conference play.”

For a while, Alabama was doing everything it could to keep Vanderbilt at arm’s length. After blowing an 18-point lead shrunk down to just four by halftime, the Crimson Tide did a great job building it back to double-figures early in the second half.

“I wanted to take what the defense gave me,” Sears said after finishing with 21 points, a game-high.

But after Sears’ heroics, it all started to fall apart. Add a turnover here, a missed free throw there, and a few fouls to go with it, Vanderbilt found itself with the ball in a one-possession game with under 30 seconds left to go.

“In the last four, it was not at all what we were looking for,” Oats said. “We had a decent run at the 8-to-4, but then it started to slip.”

The word Oats has used this week to describe what he’s looking for from his team in these late moments is “competitiveness.” Based on the product that was on the floor today, the competitiveness was on fully display for 30, even 36 minutes of the game.

But to see this team reach its full potential, especially in a league as loaded as the SEC, it’s going to need it for a full 40.