This is an opinion column.
For a moment, we had the basketball nirvana this overstuffed coliseum was craving.
High-stakes bloody knuckles saw No. 1 Auburn and No. 2 Alabama trading 3-point haymakers in a scene that fit the hype.
For a few fleeting basketball moments, it was absolute theater.
Then Auburn called for the curtain.
The biggest college basketball game this state has ever seen had its moment of drama but, ultimately, confirmed it was the lead dog in the Battle of Titans.
No. 1, for good reason.
The Tigers came into his hostile hangar and served notice it wasn’t bowing in the hardwood arms race that’s fixated this football holy land.
Auburn 94, Alabama 85 was nothing short of a primal assertion of power on the gilded stage.
It punched the second-ranked hosts in the face to open both halves of basketball and only briefly ceded momentum. It was 9-0, Tigers before Alabama knew what happened and got worse from there.
Auburn then came out firing again to open the second half — turning this into a 14-point rout. Rocking at tip, this place felt more like a mausoleum until Alabama opted in.
Briefly.
A quick 15-2 run set the scene for the moment of zen.
It began with Grant Nelson’s dunk that tied the game at 65.
Tahaad Pettiford’s 3-pointer 18 seconds later made it 68-65, Tigers.
Chris Youngblood tied it again, 8 seconds down the timeline with another 3.
Thirty-three ticks after that, Chad Baker-Mazara’s bomb became the bookend to the flurry.
More emotional swings than a junior high cafeteria.
Absolute whiplash between absolute pandemonium and the reciprocal hush.
After 53 seconds of madness, Auburn returned to the form and yanked the live wire from a Coleman Coliseum crowd that got a head start on the traffic.
Auburn was too big.
It was too physical.
Too balanced.
Better defense.
These Tigers have all the makings of a national title team and it flexed that potential in the biggest way Saturday. It can win in different ways — the key to translating February into March and, ultimately, April.
It never trailed in the most hostile environment this 57-year-old building’s produced.
The Tigers dictated the pace, the tone and the tenor of this rare meeting between teams who split No. 1 rankings between the two major polls.
There will be most conflict this Monday.
Not after Johni Broome led the pack of six Tigers who scored between 19 and 13 points. They took turns as lead dog but it was Pettiford, the freshman, who scored seven of his 13 in the minutes after Alabama tied it.
This is a Tiger defense that held Alabama to 5-for-26 shooting from 3-point range. That tied for the host’s fewest-made 3s this season, while the 19.2% success rate was its second-lowest of the season. Mark Sears went just 2-for-11 from deep. He and Grant Nelson combined to shoot just 9-for-28 from the field
Make a few more of those and this game feels different.
But Auburn also asserted itself in the paint. A bigger, longer lineup made life difficult near the rim for an Alabama offense that likes to test the painted area of the floor. The Crimson Tide made just 14 of 30 layups.
The Tigers were credited with six blocks officially but their size was a factor when Alabama guards tried to get to the rim. That was most evident in the closing moments as critical Tide possessions died in the paint as a long-armed defense swallowed the final gasps whole.
Alabama picked a bad day to have one of its worst shooting performances of the season since it, for an afternoon, solved its biggest offensive liability. Turnovers numbered just seven — its second fewest of the season.
Yet Auburn felt like it was in control of this one almost from the tip. It was a team that looked dialed in a week after appearing to let off the gas in a decisive home loss to Florida.
It didn’t play with the intensity befitting a No. 1 team seven days before it locked in an equally unfriendly setting.
Defense has separated these two in critical moments in recent games and did again Saturday.
After building the quick 9-0 lead, Auburn weathered the three major threats Alabama made for the lead.
It was a 6-0 spurt in a 25-second stretch early in the first when Alabama trimmed it to 14-13.
Another 6-0 run spanning 59 seconds later in the half when Alabama made it 26-25.
And a 7-0 sprint after Youngblood’s 3 tied it at 68, this time covering 1:21.
Alabama never got closer than five points after that.
Point proven.
Auburn lost the last two trips to Coleman Coliseum but flexed in this trip north — easily the most anticipated regular-season game this state’s ever seen.
For now, the Tigers can stake their claim to No. 1.
Alabama had its shot and a home-crowd tailwind for a blink there but Auburn was never fazed.
Unbothered by the moment.
Now the unquestioned No. 1.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.
