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No. 10 Alabama is going to win the SEC’s regular-season title – the Tide’s main focus now is winning out to earn a potential top seed in the NCAA Tournament. Bama will be a sizable favorite on the NCAAB odds Tuesday at South Carolina.

How to Bet Alabama at South Carolina NCAA Basketball Odds & TV Info

When: Tuesday, 6:30 PM ET
Where: Colonial Life Arena
TV: SEC Network
Stream: ESPN app
Radio:com
Opening NCAAB Lines: TBA (Alabama will be favored)

Last Meeting

This is the only scheduled meeting between the schools and they played once last season, a 90-86 Tide home victory. Kira Lewis Jr. scored 25 points and freshman Javian Davis had a season-high 20 to help the Crimson Tide overcome a slow start and the absence of injured guard John Petty (he’s healthy now). Davis finished his biggest game of the season by making the second of two free throws with four seconds left to help the Tide complete a rally from an early 12-point deficit. Keyshawn Bryant led South Carolina with 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting to pace five double-digit scorers.

“We didn’t put up a fight defensively,” South Carolina coach Frank Martin said. “We scored points. They should have shot 74 (%) as bad as we were defensively.”

Why Bet on Alabama? | 2021 NCAA Basketball Expert Analysis

The Tide (15-5) will not make it through the SEC schedule unbeaten as they suffered their first conference loss Saturday, 68-65 at No. 18 Missouri. The Tigers held their largest lead with 13:05 left and were still up by 20 with less than six minutes remaining.

The Crimson Tide then started scoring on nearly every possession and Herb Jones had two chances to give Alabama the lead in the final 20 seconds, but he missed a layup and had another try blocked by Mitchell Smith. The Tide had one last chance to tie it, but Jaden Shackelford’s contested 3-pointer at the buzzer missed. The Tigers are now two games behind Alabama for the SEC lead but will have the tiebreaker between the two teams, with Saturday being their only meeting of the season.

“We couldn’t have asked for a much better effort in the last 13 minutes,” coach Nate Oats said. “If we get that effort for 40 minutes, we win the game.”

Shackelford led four Crimson Tide players in double figures with 15 points, while Keon Ellis (12), Jahvon Quinerly (12) and John Petty Jr. (11) all reached double digits. Petty also led UA with six rebounds, four steals and two blocked shots.

Alabama shot 33.3 percent from the field and knocked down 9-of-25 (36.0 percent) from three-point range while Missouri shot 45.2 percent from the field and but was held to just 3-of-20 (15.0 percent) from beyond the arc. Mizzou won the battle of the boards with 45 rebounds to Alabama’s 43 and outscored UA in the paint 46-22.

The loss as noted marked the first for the Tide in conference play, snapping its 10-game winning streak which was the best start to league play in 65 years, dating back to the 1955-56 season.

Why Bet on South Carolina? | 2021 NCAA Basketball Expert Analysis

The Gamecocks (5-7) can only play spoilers at this point as they won’t be playing postseason basketball other than the SEC Tournament. They lost 75-59 at home to Mississippi State on Saturday. AJ Lawson’s dunk with 13:44 remaining to brought the Gamecocks within 50-49. Mississippi State responded with a 13-0 outburst over the next five minutes and South Carolina never recovered.

The Bulldogs finished 26-for-56 (46%) including 10 for 19 (53%) from 3-point range. South Carolina’s (5-7, 3-5) shooting fortunes were just the opposite as the Gamecocks were 19 for 61 (31%) and missed 20 of 25 3-point attempts.

“You can’t shoot the ball the way we did and think you have a chance to win in league play, especially one of the better defensive teams,” head coach Frank Martin said postgame. “(We) shot perimeter shots because they were sitting in the paint. Sometimes we got a little quick on the trigger and didn’t move their defense. The only (offensive) set I wanted to attack them with (that we practiced), I called it eight or 10 times in the game and we never executed it one time.”

Going into the game, it was unlikely the Gamecocks were going to get many second chance opportunities on the offensive end. The Bulldogs led the SEC and were 22nd nationally with a +7.6 rebound margin. USC leading rebounder Justin Minaya was leading the SEC with 3.7 offensive rebounds per game. Has held to one on Saturday in 20 minutes played. Carolina’s longest-tenured Gamecock went scoreless (0-of-6).

Keyshawn Bryant and Lawson each scored 13 for the Gamecocks and Seventh Woods scored 10. Lawson became the 47th member of the South Carolina 1,000-point club in the game. Lawson marks the sixth player to hit the 1,000-point mark under the direction of head coach Frank Martin following Michael Carrera, Sindarius Thornwell, Duane Notice, Chris Silva and Maik Kotsar.

For this game, Martin is 34-47 (.419) against ranked opponents as a head coach. His teams have four wins over opponents ranked in the top five, and two wins over opponents who are ranked No. 1.