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AUBURN, Ala. — Mark Sears hit a game-winning floater as time expired as No. 7 Alabama spoiled the home finale of rival and No. 1 Auburn with a 93-91 overtime road win Saturday.
The off-balance buzzer-beater from the free throw line was only the third made basket of the game for Sears, who finished with nine points. He’s the first player with a buzzer-beater to beat an AP No. 1 team since Ron Harper Jr.’s half-court shot to beat Purdue in 2021.
“He came through and delivered,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said, according to AL.com. “Bailed me out because that play design wasn’t all that great, to be honest with you. The thing that was great about it was that it was in a pretty good player’s hands.”
Sears, a fifth-year senior, disagreed about the play call.
“I think it was a good play call because it caused a lot of confusion,” he said. “And they didn’t know. Like, earlier in the game, they were switching everything guard-to-guard. So like, I did a quick handoff to Labaron [Philon], they didn’t switch and I was able to get downhill with my left hand and I was able to get it off with enough time.”
Alabama (24-7, 13-5 SEC) got 23 points from Grant Nelson and 15 points each from Philon and Clifford Omoruyi. The win also ended a two-game skid for Alabama and was the second straight loss for Auburn (27-4, 15-3).
Oats earned his third career win over AP No. 1 teams, tying the most by a head coach in SEC history.
“This group wants to keep playing with each other,” he said after the game. “They like it. Last year, we didn’t finish the regular season or even the SEC tournament well, but we got them together to make a Final Four run, so I think this group’s better overall.”
Johni Broome scored 34 points for Auburn, including a game-tying layup in the final minute of regulation and a game-tying 3-pointer with 15 seconds left in overtime. Broome, who logged 43 minutes, is the first player in SEC history to score 30 points in a loss for an AP No. 1 team.
Tahaad Pettiford added 19 points for Auburn, which was without second-leading scorer Chad Baker-Mazara for the final 10:52 of regulation and overtime. Baker-Mazara was ejected for a flagrant 2 foul on Alabama’s Chris Youngblood.
The Associated Press and ESPN Research contributed to this report.
