Crimson Tide wasn't ready to go packing

NASHVILLE - The Alabama Crimson Tide had blown enough leads this season to know nothing is safe. The South Carolina Gamecocks got too comfortable nursing an 18-point margin.

Mikhail Torrance's 9-foot jumper broke a tie at 62 with 57 seconds left, and Alabama rallied from the big deficit in the second half to beat South Carolina 68-63 on Thursday in the opening game of the SEC tournament.

Alabama (17-14) beat the Gamecocks (15-16) for the second time in eight days.

"I couldn't be prouder of our efforts, great win," Alabama coach Anthony Grant said. "Obviously, we're excited to still be a part of the tournament."

Alabama went cold, going 6:08 without a field goal late in the first half and stretching into the second.

Grant reminded his players at halftime to keep their composure. The Tide just worked harder at rebounding in limiting their turnovers. They wound up outrebounding South Carolina 42-40 and had four of their 12 turnovers in the second half.

Torrance finished with 17 points, Knox had 16 and JaMychal Green added 10 for Alabama.

Devan Downey led South Carolina with 21 points. Ramon Galloway had 14 and Sam Muldrow added 13, but was shut out in the second half.

"We had a hard time scoring," South Carolina coach Darrin Horn said. "They tried to take the ball out of Devan's hands little bit. We just played like a team that was trying to hang on instead of a team that was trying to win and pull away."

Downey, the SEC's leading scorer at 22.5 points per game, had his chances to pull off some more magic. But two shots hit nothing but air. At the line needing to hit both attempts to tie it at 64 with 18.3 seconds left, Downey clanked his first free throw off the front of the rim.

"It's just disappointing to lose, period," Downey said. "The manner really doesn't matter. ... I thought we had the game pretty much in hand, but credit Alabama, who just kept playing and kept fighting."

Florida 78, Auburn 69: Auburn coach Jeff Lebo called the Bridgestone Arena a tough place to shoot 3-pointers. The Florida Gators, who helped the Tigers struggle, had no such problems finding the basket from long range or close up.

Alex Tyus scored 24 points - many on rim-rattling dunks - and Florida snapped a three-game skid by beating Auburn in the SEC tournament.

"I thought we did about as good a job as we could've done guarding the 3, and I think they exerted a lot of pressure on Kenny Boynton and Erving Walker and that freed up Alex and Chandler (Parsons) to have good games. I think both stepped up and played very well," Florida coach Billy Donovan said.

Parsons scored 21 points for Florida, including hitting 3 of 4 3-pointers, and Vernon Macklin had 10 points.

That was in stark contrast to Auburn, which made only 4 of 25 behind the arc. Tay Waller, who came in as the SEC's second-best 3-point shooter at 42 percent went scoreless and missed all five of his 3-point attempts.

"It's abnormal," Lebo said. "You know what Tay's been doing and how he's been shooting. I worried coming in. Shooting the ball in these type of venues is not easy."

Waller finished 0-for-6 from the floor after coming in averaging 15.9 points per game.

Florida (21-11), already 7-0 against the SEC West, has a chance to add another win tonight against Mississippi State, the West's No. 1 seed. Florida beat the Bulldogs 69-62 on Feb. 6.

This could be Lebo's final game as coach with Auburn (15-13) after six seasons. Asked when he will meet with his athletic director about his future, Lebo was noncommittal.

Frankie Sullivan scored a career-high 27 points for Auburn. DeWayne Reed added 18 and Lucas Hargrove 11.

Georgia 77, Arkansas 64: Trey Thompkins scored 23 points to lead the Bulldogs (13-16) past the Razorbacks (14-17).

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