Sears and Alabama host South Carolina
South Carolina Gamecocks (13-1, 1-0 SEC) at Alabama Crimson Tide (9-5, 1-0 SEC)
Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Tuesday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Alabama plays the South Carolina Gamecocks after Mark Sears scored 21 points in Alabama’s 78-75 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores.
The Crimson Tide are 6-1 in home games. Alabama is 1-1 in games decided by less than 4 points.
The Gamecocks are 1-0 against SEC opponents. South Carolina has a 10-1 record against opponents above .500.
Alabama makes 49.3% of its shots from the field this season, which is 8.5 percentage points higher than South Carolina has allowed to its opponents (40.8%). South Carolina has shot at a 44.7% clip from the field this season, 1.8 percentage points greater than the 42.9% shooting opponents of Alabama have averaged.
The Crimson Tide and Gamecocks square off Tuesday for the first time in SEC play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Sears is scoring 19.4 points per game with 4.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists for the Crimson Tide. Grant Nelson is averaging 13.8 points and 5.2 rebounds while shooting 43.0% over the last 10 games for Alabama.
Meechie Johnson Jr. is shooting 36.4% from beyond the arc with 2.2 made 3-pointers per game for the Gamecocks, while averaging 18.2 points. B.J. Mack is averaging 13.4 points over the past 10 games for South Carolina.
LAST 10 GAMES: Crimson Tide: 5-5, averaging 87.8 points, 39.0 rebounds, 15.9 assists, 7.1 steals and 4.1 blocks per game while shooting 46.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 79.5 points per game.
Gamecocks: 9-1, averaging 74.1 points, 36.0 rebounds, 15.4 assists, 4.6 steals and 3.6 blocks per game while shooting 43.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 62.0 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.