Alabama men’s basketball picked up its 10th win of the year, and fourth in a row, with a 74-47 blowout of South Carolina in Coleman Coliseum on Tuesday night.

The Crimson Tide (10-5) built a seven-point lead in the first half but South Carolina’s 19 rebounds in the frame kept the score close going into the break. The Tide would put the game away with nine 3-pointers, including a trio from Mark Sears, outscoring USC 44-18 in the decisive half.

“I didn’t think we were ready to play. We had four turnovers our first five possessions. They scored 13 quick ones. After we got settled in, we did a really good job. The rest of the first half, we did a great job. We had multiple 4-minute battles between media timeouts where they didn’t score a point in the second half. That’s the defense we’re looking for moving forward,” head coach Nate Oats said postgame.

Here are our takeaways from the win.

Mark Sears giving Alabama another SEC scoring leader

Alabama’s lone returning starter was going to have expectations to step up as a scorer and leader. But what Sears has done has likely surpassed expectations. The Muscle Shoals native leads the conference with 20.2 points per game and added 31 more on Tuesday, this time an efficient 10-of-13 shooting with six rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Sears found a running mate with Aaron Estrada, who continued to look more comfortable in the system. He added 17 points and seven rebounds with two steals. They helped limit Meechie Johnson (18.0 points per game) to three-of-11 shooting in the second half.

Postgame, Oats commented that “nobody” on Alabama’s bench realized Sears had a 30-plus point performance, already his second of the year.

Alabama was ready for the Gamecocks and let them know it

After a few lackluster environments in Coleman through nonconference play, the crowd brought it on Tuesday, at one point flustering Johnson into a back-and-forth with the Alabama bench. Johnson and Alabama walk-on Max Scharnowski were called for double technical fouls.

“Their guys were yelling at our bench for whatever reason, I don’t know,” Oats said. “Then they made the statement the SEC isn’t ready for them. I guess we’ll see if the SEC is ready for them. But this SEC team was ready for them.”

The comment is about what USC guard Myles Stute said on Dec. 30 against Florida A&M. Oats made a friendly reminder that Alabama has won the conference twice since he arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2019. South Carolina has never won the SEC men’s tournament, though has started 13-2 in the second year of coach Lamont Paris.

Wague out injured

Alabama forward Mohamed Wague is out “week-to-week” after aggravating a right foot injury that required surgery in the offseason. Oats said Wague, a transfer from West Virginia, didn’t practice the last couple of days and could return against Mississippi State on Saturday.

Wague has started eight of Alabama’s 14 games and is averaging 5.5 points and 3.6 rebounds across 12.9 minutes per contest. In his place, Nick Pringle was reasserted into the starting lineup and finished with a plus-24 in 29 minutes with three points.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].