After a week off for its midweek bye, Alabama basketball returned to action without losing momentum on Saturday, beating Arkansas 85-81 in Fayetteville. The win didn’t come easy, with the Razorbacks mounting a furious late comeback.

“When you starting playing the scoreboard and and you don’t play to get better on every possession, that’s the stuff that happens to you,” head coach Nate Oats said after the win in a game his team had been up 18 in. “I’m a little irritated.”

The win moved the Crimson Tide to 20-3 on the season, 9-1 in SEC play. UA will likely take over the No. 1 spot in the AP poll with the victory.

Alabama will be back in action Tuesday against Texas. Before that, here are three takeaways from Saturday’s win.

The opportunity

Alabama found out earlier on Saturday that it will be hosting ESPN’s College Gameday next week at Coleman Coliseum, when Auburn comes to town. Entering Saturday’s action, the Tigers were ranked No. 1 in the nation, followed by Duke, with the Crimson Tide sitting third.

Then, Auburn fell to Florida at home. Later on in the day, during the opening minutes of the Alabama-Arkansas matchup, Duke went down at Clemson.

Suddenly, all the Crimson Tide needed to do to presumably grab the top spot in the Associated press media poll was take down the Razorbacks. Still, that was easier said than done.

John Calipari’s team came in playing its best basketball of the season, fresh off of wins at Kentucky and Texas. Also, Bud Walton Arena is one of the toughest environments in SEC basketball.

Regardless, the Tide got it done. Alabama will likely be the No. 1 team in the country.

“I don’t really care,” Oats said. “Let’s focus on Texas, let’s try to win an SEC regular season championship and let all that other stuff fall where it may.”

Turnover Tide

Alabama shot the ball far better than the Razorbacks in the first half. However, the Crimson Tide squandered a chance to take a big lead due to turnovers.

After turning the ball over 20 times in its last game, against Georgia, Alabama was back at it early. By halftime, the Tide had turned the ball over nine times against a physical Arkansas squad.

Fortunately for Alabama, the Razorbacks remained ice cold from the field, going into halftime having made just 35% of their field goals, compared to UA’s 59%. Arkansas was only able to score seven points off of the first-half turnovers.

Arkansas kept it close, never letting Alabama get more than 10 points ahead throughout the half. The Crimson Tide went to the locker room up 40-34 after Mo Dioubate made a short jumper to end the half.

Alabama had another five turnovers in the second half. Again though, Arkansas couldn’t capitalize, scoring just 13 points off turnovers throughout the game.

No sure thing

The Razorbacks cut it close. With 6:29 left, the Crimson Tide had led by 18 points, and seemed destined to roll back to Tuscaloosa with an easy win.

Then, Arkansas started rolling. The Razorbacks went on a 12-0 run late in the game, eventually cutting Alabama’s lead to just three points.

“We gotta do a better job closing,” Oats said afterward. “We risked losing a road game that we were supposed to win by not closing.”

After the lead bounced between three and five, Zvonimir Ivisic hit a layup to make it 83-80, and Nate Oats took a timeout with 38.3 seconds left, before Aden Holloway missed a three and the Razorbacks got one last chance with 10.6 seconds remaining. As his team got the ball across half-court, Calipari took a timeout with 7.3 left.

Sears fouled Ivisic, who missed the first and hit the second free throw. Chris Youngblood hit one of two, but Ivisic lost the rebound out of bounds, and after a successful UA inbound, Youngblood added a free throw to seal the 85-81 win.

Grant Nelson led the Crimson Tide with 15 points. Ivisic led all scorers with 27 points, also grabbing seven rebounds.