Labaron Philon made one shot in 29 minutes.

Mark Sears didn’t make a field goal in the second half.

Aden Holloway made three buckets, but he needed nine total shots to do it.

At least Chris Youngblood did some good against Florida. He went 5 of 9 for 14 points, with four 3-pointers, on the day. That was about the only bright spot from an otherwise abysmal outing from Alabama’s backcourt, particularly Sears and Philon.

The Crimson Tide’s guards largely disappeared in a 104-82 loss to the Gators in the SEC Tournament semifinals on Saturday at Bridgestone Arena. By Alabama’s charting, Florida’s starting backcourt outscored the Crimson Tide’s 54-26.

“They’ve got a tough backcourt,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “They’re very good defensively, too. They got some of the best defensive guards in the country, as well. So they obviously did a good job with us.”

Florida felt that if it forced guys such as Sears and Philon to try to make every play, the Gators could find success in slowing Alabama’s offense.

“I just think we wore them down,” Florida coach Todd Golden said.

The Gators pressured the ball, and they presented suffocating defense that didn’t give the Alabama guards much space to work near the basket. Golden said Florida wanted to “make them try to finish over size at the rim,” and the Gators did it well. It helped having guys such as Micah Handlogten (7-1), Rueben Chinyelu (6-10) and Alex Condon (6-11).

“Making them see different defenses and see different bodies,” Golden said, “I thought it wore them down.”

Florida deserves credit for shutting down Sears and Philon, but blame also falls on the Crimson Tide. It’s not just what Florida did. It’s also what Alabama didn’t do. Two things can be true at once.

Sears, an All-SEC first-team selection, and Philon, an All-SEC freshman pick, both did not play clean, efficient basketball. They missed shots. They made mistakes. Each tallied three turnovers a piece while going a combined 4-for-19 and 1-for-9 from beyond the arc.

“We had too many turnovers, too many blocked shots at the rim, too many poor rim decisions, in my opinion,” Oats said. “But I thought Mark was great moving the ball in the first half. … We didn’t particularly hit all the shots. I thought he made a lot of really good reads in the first half. For whatever reason, we just as a group, the ball wasn’t moving like it needed to in the second half.”

As for Philon …

“Particularly in the second half, Labaron wasn’t great on both sides of the ball for large parts of the game after he had an unbelievable game yesterday,” Oats said. “I don’t know if it’s just freshman, but we need to be better. We’re going to rely on him to win games in the NCAA Tournament.”

Sears and Philon are both capable of playing high-level basketball. Philon scored 21 points against Kentucky not even a day before. Sears had a five-game stretch late in SEC play where he averaged 28 points per game.

But neither of those versions made an appearance against Florida. So, Alabama lost to one of the best teams in the country.

The Crimson Tide can’t afford another performance like that from its guards in the NCAA Tournament. Backcourts often define March Madness success, and Alabama’s wasn’t good enough Saturday.

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.