The trap was set and Oklahoma yanked the cord Saturday afternoon.

After winning nine straight, Alabama imploded in a rare trip outside of league play as Oklahoma students rushed the floor in the aftermath. The 93-69 loss was never really close as the defensive intensity coach that Nate Oats listed Friday as the reason for its surge was suddenly missing.

After holding each of the last nine opponents under 70, Alabama saw the Sooners cross that threshold with 11:55 to play in the last SEC/Big 12 Challenge.

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The Crimson Tide fell to 18-3 while Oklahoma moved to 12-9 after a few near misses against highly-ranked teams.

“Oklahoma came ready to play,” Oats said, “and we obviously didn’t.”

The Sooners led by as many as 32 in Alabama’s first loss since falling 100-90 to Gonzaga on Dec. 17.

Oklahoma shot 57.6%, a season-high against Power 5 competition while nailing 9-of-13 3-point shots.

Alabama, meanwhile, barely season-low performance from the 3-point line. Its six makes on 22 attempts were three better than the 3-for-28 season-opening win over Longwood.

“To be honest with you, I don’t think we’ve been playing great for a couple of weeks,” Oats said. “We definitely lost our edge a little bit and they got us at the right time.”

Brandon Miller’s 11 points on 4-for-14 shooting were his fewest since scoring eight at Houston on Dec. 10. Rylan Griffen led Alabama with 15 points off the bench while Jahvon Quinerly added 12. Starters Jaden Bradley and Charles Bediako struggled as the freshman guard finished with one point on 0-for-3 shooting while the center had four points and two rebounds playing just eight minutes.

The story, however, was the defensive end of the floor.

Grant Sherfield’s 30 points led the way followed by Jalen Hills’ 26 as the Sooners scored 1.3 points per possession.

Oats said he was surprised by the defensive performance.

“Yeah,” he said. “We’ve been, I think we were fifth in the country in defensive efficiency coming into this game so this wasn’t a typical showing by us. But our effort has to be better. We knew Sherfield was good. We didn’t follow the game plan. The starting group obviously wasn’t good to start the game two games in a row now.”

Oklahoma came out firing Saturday afternoon. It led by as many as 15 in the first half while making six of the first seven from 3-point range. The Sooners averaged just 6.7 made 3-pointers a game (No. 264 nationally) entering Saturday.

Sherfield had 18 before halftime when Alabama’s normally solid defense had numerous breakdowns.

The deficit was 50-33 after 20 minutes and Alabama got no closer than 11 after a brief surge following halftime.

On the other end, the Sooners limited Miller to six points on 2-for-10 shooting before the intermission while blocking four shots. Alabama’s 3-point shooting game also slumbered early as Noah Gurley made the team’s first with 6:26 left in the first half as the Tide attempted just four before that.

Turnovers, however, weren’t a major issue for an Alabama team that committed below its season average with 13. Of its 25 made shots, however, only six were assisted — a season low. Miller had half of the assists with three with Mark Sears, Griffen and Quinerly each adding one.

Alabama will close the month of January with a Tuesday visit from Vanderbilt at 7:30 p.m. CT in Coleman Coliseum.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.