Green, Releford power Tide over Auburn

AUBURN – Alabama’s Big Two – JaMychal Green and Trevor Releford – had plenty of help to lead the Crimson Tide past Auburn 68-50 on Tuesday night.

But Green, the Tide’s lone senior, and Releford, its sophomore point guard, helped Alabama control play over the final 25 minutes and earn a precious SEC road win.

Green led the Tide with 19 points, seven rebounds and added four assists, while Releford scored 15 points and made five rebounds, three assists and five steals.

Alabama joined fairly select company with the victory. The Crimson Tide (16-7, 5-4 SEC) handed Auburn its second home-court loss of the season. The Tigers (13-11, 3-7) had lost only to Kentucky. It was Alabama’s second SEC road victory, joining the top-ranked Wildcats, Florida and Vanderbilt as the only teams in the league to post multiple road wins.

It was the biggest margin of defeat by Alabama on a Tiger home court in 50 meetings.

“There was lot of emotion all throughout the game on our bench tonight,” Alabama coach Anthony Grant said, who called it a “great team win.”

It was accomplished a day after talented forward Tony Mitchell was suspended indefinitely. Alabama got strong support from its bench, which outscored Auburn’s 28-9.

Charles Hankerson scored 14 points and freshman Rodney Cooper was 3-for-3 from the field – including two 3-pointers – to finish with eight points.

“I thought he was terrific,” Grant said of Cooper. “He came out with energy, did a great job defensively, was very active. That’s what we need out of him.

“It’s great for him to see the ball go in. He had been struggling offensively. Tonight, he was due.”

The lead changed hands just one time. Auburn set a blistering pace in the game’s first five minutes, but Alabama broke a 21-all tie with less than five minutes left in the first half, led by 11 at intermission and never looked back.

The Tide made 9 of its first 14 shots of the second half as they built a 58-38 lead with 9:08 remaining.

Auburn coach Tony Barbee said the disappointing thing was that his team never fought back.

“At the end of the day it came down to toughness – and we got out-toughed,” he said. “Give Alabama credit. They came in here and played with a high level of confidence.”

Alabama got big assists from unlikely sources to overcome a blistering start by Auburn.

First, Hankerson came off the bench and was 3-for-3 from 3-point range.

Second, 7-footer Carl Engstrom hit two baskets and blocked a shot in seven productive minutes.

Finally, the Tigers were called for three technical fouls – two for hanging on the room after dunks by Kenny Gabriel and Chris Denson, the other on Auburn’s bench after Robb Chubb was called for a moving screen.

Chubb drew contact from Releford with 18 seconds left in the first half. The call went Alabama’s way and after a physical and frustrating half, the Tiger coaches had seen enough to quickly draw the third technical with 17.3 seconds left in the half.

Releford hit two free throws – he was 6-for-6 on the technical freebies – and Green launched a jumper with one second left that hit nothing but net, sending the Crimson Tide into halftime with a 35-24 lead.

Chubb hit his first four shots and Auburn was 6-for-7 from the field while building a 12-5 lead just 5:14 into the game.

However, those made attempts came from inside the 3-point line. The Tigers went 1-for-6 from behind the arc, several of those on rushed attempts early in a possession. They didn’t give themselves a chance to cool off on two-pointers.

Frankie Sullivan led Auburn with 21 points. Chubb finished with the eight points he scored in the opening minutes. He was just 4-for-6 from the field.