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Alabama Basketball Wins Season Finale 61-60

The Crimson Tide defeats the Aggies to end the regular season on a good note.

A senior leader mentors the next generation.
A senior leader mentors the next generation.
Kelly Lambert-USA TODAY Sports

In the last few games, the Tide seemed to have strong first halves before imploding at the end of every game. In their season finale, Alabama finally reversed that trend. After a weak first half, in which they trailed by as many as 15 points to the Aggies, the Crimson Tide, led by guard Retin Obasohan, made a spectacular second half comeback to win the game in the final seconds by one point.

The Tide scored their first 8 points of the game in the paint, which was a welcome addition to the offense for once... It's too bad this was the last regular season game. After trading blows with A&M for the first five minutes and leading the game 8-6, the Tide went on one of their patented scoring droughts, and A&M quickly racked up 10 straight points. Walk-on senior Dakota Slaughter came into the game and tried to spark the offense, hitting a three and a layup in his limited playing time and cutting the lead to 5. Unfortunately, the Tide then fell into an even longer scoring drought than the next one, and Texas A&M was suddenly up 32-17. The half ended with the Aggies leading 36-22.

Fortunately, the second half was a whole different story. Retin Obasohan and Levi Randolph led a steadily-improving offensive to the tune of 39 second half points. The Tide finally overcame their first half deficit on a 3-point shot from Levi Randolph with twelve and a half minutes to go in the game. From that point, neither team led by more than four points, and the lead changed 7 times. A&M took a 60-57 lead over the Tide with two and a half minutes to go, and then never scored again. Rodney Cooper and Retin Obasohan knocked in a couple of shots to take the lead by 1 point, and Texas A&M missed the final three-point attempt with 3 seconds left in the game.

Alabama had four different players reach double digits in scoring. Retin Obasohan was the top scorer with 12 points on a 50% shooting outing, and just did an all around great job in sparking and leading the offense from the point guard position. Senior Levi Randolph had 11 points, and was 2 of 3 from three point range (40% shooting overall). He was one rebound short of getting a double-double, and also had a couple of key steals and a block.

Forward Jimmie Taylor had one of his better games in crimson. He also scored 11 points on the day, and only missed 1 of his 4 free throws. He also pulled in 6 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Senior Rodney Cooper had 11 points too, but was a dreadful 1-of-8 from behind the 3-point line. Riley Norris was the fifth starter, but had a very quiet day. He hit one of three shots (and those were the first points of the game), and grabbed only 3 rebounds.

Dakota Slaughter hit 66% of his three-point shots and totaled 8 points and a couple of rebounds on the day. Michael Kessens only managed 3 points, but also added 3 rebounds, a steal, and a block in limited playing time. Justin Coleman hit one of his two three point attempts off of the bench.

The win was a nice relief from the heartbreaking losses the Tide has suffered over the last month, and was a sweet way to cap off the regular season. Next up will be the SEC tournament as the Tide fights for a spot in the NIT. We will have your preview and live coverage next week.