Auburn took control of Wednesday’s Iron Bowl of Basketball in the final minutes of the first half and never looked back. The No. 12 Tigers defeated No. 16 Alabama 99-81 to even the regular-season rivalry series and shakeup the SEC standings.

As one might expect with these two teams, there were spurts of scoring for each side in the early going. Auburn had a 32-18 lead before Alabama took a 37-36 at the 4:38 mark in the first half. It would be the last lead of the game for the Crimson Tide.

Bruce Pearl’s squad closed out the half on a tear, and suddenly UA found itself down 55-41 at the half on the road. Auburn’s Jungle environment made sure that a road comeback wouldn’t be an easy task.

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Auburn made sure not to let up on the attack in the second 20 minutes. Pearl might have liked a little more defense, but no coach is going to complain about outscoring the opponent 44-40 in the second half, adding to a 14-point advantage.

Alabama was the better 3-point shooting squad on the night, making 9-of-26 from beyond the arc whereas the Tigers were just 5-of-19. Auburn was better at just about everything else. Auburn dominated Alabama in points off turnovers (22-10), second-chance points (24-12), bench points (31-8), points in the paint (40-26), fast break points (26-8), blocks (12-5), steals (13-2) and assists (15-8).

Jaylin Williams and Johni Broome put on a show in the national spotlight. Williams led all scorers with 26 points on 8-of-13 field-goal shooting, while going 9-of-10 at the line. Broome was right behind him with 24 points on 7-of-16 shooting, along with a team-high 7 rebounds.

The officiating crew had a busy night with the whistles. Auburn shot 50 free throws, making 40. Alabama was 28-of-35 at the line. The Tide lost Grant Nelson and Aaron Estrada to fouls.

Alabama had been on top as the only SEC team with 1 conference loss. With Auburn’s win, there are now three teams sitting at 8-2 in conference play: Auburn, Alabama and South Carolina. Tennessee is 7-2, having played one fewer conference contest.