In a booming Stegeman Coliseum, Nate Oats saw his Alabama basketball team grow up before his eyes.

The Crimson Tide was in the middle of a 16-point comeback, still struggling to shoot the ball and keep a surging Georgia from an upset. Then, two key moments happened while the team huddled in front of the visiting bench. First, Oats pressed his team to stop passing up open 3-pointers. The deep tries are a driving force of Oats’ fast-paced scheme. Then, Oats heard a glimmer of hope.

“We can win this game,” Oats recalled a player saying to his teammates.

“No, we are going to win this game. There is no ‘we can,’” Oats quickly corrected him.

And after another hard-fought 40 minutes, No. 24 Alabama did, outscoring UGA (14-7, 4-4 SEC) by 23 points in the second half, eventually keeping its spot atop the conference standings with an ultimately comfortable nine-point victory.

Mark Sears and Grant Nelson scored 33 of their combined 43 points after the intermission, sinking 5-of-7 attempts from deep. Alabama (15-6, 7-1) shot 62.5% in the second half compared to 42.9% in the first. Meanwhile, the Tide held Georgia to a 44.8% clip for the game, limiting guard Noah Thomasson to 2 points after he managed 13 in the first half.

“To be honest with you, our defense was just OK. We picked both sides up in the second half,” Oats said. “If we’re going to win a championship, we gotta get to a point where we can play 40 minutes on both sides of the ball. Not perfect, you may turn it over some. You may miss shots. But your effort, execution gotta be there for 40 minutes. We haven’t seen it yet.”

While not the prettiest win on the resume, the 85-76 final score presented another statement for an Alabama team looking to assert itself as not just one of the better teams in the conference, but as a force in March. Sears and Nelson showed their ability to close out games like they did a week ago against then-No. 8 Auburn and Rylan Griffen (12 points, four rebounds) continued to grow as a leader.

But for about 20 minutes, it was ugly. Georgia, which entered the game ranked 69th in adjusted offensive efficiency per KenPom, built a 9-2 lead heading into the first media timeout. By the second, UGA was up 15 points. Alabama had six turnovers in the first half compared to just three in the second.

Alabama’s 27 points were the fewest UA has produced in a single half since 2020. UA went 2-for-11 from 3-point range and was out-rebounded 27 to 7.

“They came out and they came ready to play. We did not. I thought we missed some shots and it affected how we play offense. I felt we got away from what made us good. They killed us on the glass. I don’t think we played hard enough,” Oats said. ” … Came out in the second half and we fixed a lot of what was wrong.”

Following Alabama’s rallying timeout, UGA was held scoreless for nearly six minutes. The Tide took its first lead off a Grant Nelson layup with 4:47 remaining. When Georgia answered with a bucket in the paint, Sears scored five in a row, as Alabama kept finding transition opportunities. Sears, who was snubbed from multiple national player of the year watchlists this week, produced 12 of Alabama’s final 24 points.

Alabama was without two rotational players as Nate Oats announced postgame forward Nick Pringle was suspended — his second punishment this season — and guard Davin Cosby was sick with the flu. Neither traveled with the team, per the ESPN broadcast.

The Crimson Tide returns home on Saturday, Feb. 3 for a 7:30 matchup against Mississippi State.

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