No. 12 Auburn hosts No. 16 Alabama after Sears’ 21-point outing

Alabama Crimson Tide (16-6, 8-1 SEC) at Auburn Tigers (18-4, 7-2 SEC)

Auburn, Alabama; Wednesday, 7 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: No. 16 Alabama visits the No. 12 Auburn Tigers after Mark Sears scored 21 points in Alabama’s 99-67 win against the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

The Tigers have gone 11-0 at home. Auburn is ninth in college basketball with 18.2 assists per game led by Tre Donaldson averaging 3.5.

The Crimson Tide are 8-1 against conference opponents. Alabama ranks fourth in the SEC scoring 36.0 points per game in the paint led by Sears averaging 7.9.

Auburn’s average of 8.0 made 3-pointers per game this season is just 0.8 more made shots on average than the 7.2 per game Alabama allows. Alabama scores 24.0 more points per game (89.9) than Auburn allows to opponents (65.9).

TOP PERFORMERS: Aden Holloway averages 1.9 made 3-pointers per game for the Tigers, scoring 8.9 points while shooting 31.6% from beyond the arc. Johni Broome is averaging 15.7 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocks over the past 10 games for Auburn.

Sears is averaging 20.1 points, 3.9 assists and 1.7 steals for the Crimson Tide. Rylan Griffen is averaging 12.5 points over the last 10 games for Alabama.

LAST 10 GAMES: Tigers: 8-2, averaging 79.7 points, 37.5 rebounds, 17.4 assists, 7.8 steals and 6.2 blocks per game while shooting 46.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 65.0 points per game.

Crimson Tide: 9-1, averaging 87.1 points, 39.3 rebounds, 15.4 assists, 8.1 steals and 4.2 blocks per game while shooting 48.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.4 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.