No. 6 Alabama men’s basketball fell to No. 5 Tennessee 79-76 on the road on Saturday afternoon.

The Volunteers got it done in March Madness fashion as guard Jahmai Mashack hit a deep three at the buzzer. This was the last part of a 7-0 run by Tennessee in the final 30 seconds.

“I’ll take most of the blame for the last 30 seconds,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said during the postgame press conference. “It’s on me. I subbed our bigs out to get the rebound before I should’ve. I shouldn’t have subbed them out until after we secured the rebound.”

The loss clinched the SEC regular season title for No. 1 Auburn as Alabama fights for higher seeding in both the SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament.

Coming into this game between SEC and national heavyweights, most of the eyes were on Alabama guard Mark Sears and Tennessee guards Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler. Sears and Lanier were top-5 in the conference in points per game while Zeigler, the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year, led the league in assists.

Sears and Lanier each stood out in the first half as they each scored 12 points in the first half. Zeigler, on the other hand, scored two points with three assists, a turnover and two very early fouls that allowed him to play 10 of the first 20 minutes.

Zeigler, along with multiple other Tennessee guards were pressured by Alabama guard Labaron Philon in the first half as the star freshman tallied a whopping three steals in the opening period––tied for a season-high…in a full game. Philon was another guard to watch in this Battle of the Backcourts due to recent performances and he delivered in the first half offensively as well with eight points and a team-high three assists.

But the start of the second half turned from Zeigler being in foul trouble to Philon and Alabama forwards Mouhamed Dioubate and Grant Nelson tallying three penalties apiece. This forced head coach Nate Oats and company to play slightly more conservatively as the Volunteers climbed back from a nine-point deficit.

Zeigler started playing like he had been the past few games in the second half as he tallied 13 points in the period alone. Vols guard Jordan Gainey also gave Oats and company trouble Alabama guard Aden Holloway and Sears kept the Tide from letting Thompson-Boling Arena explode for most of the latter period as they kept quieting the crowd.

Zeigler and Gainey tied the game for Tennessee multiple times times and two Gainey free throws made it 70-68 for the Vols’ first lead since 4:23 in the first half.

Alabama forward Grant Nelson proceeded to hit free throws to tie the game back up shortly after. Sears was cramping up for most of the second half but a very long possession that included multiple offensive rebounds by Jarin Stevenson and Clifford Omoruyi ended with a big make from downtown with two minutes to go.

Philon swiped his fifth steal which led to a layup, but then he proceeded to miss one of his two free throws which led to four straight points by Tennessee to tie the game. Alabama had the opportunity for a game-winner with under five seconds to go but a five-second violation on the inbound.

“I had a chance to call a timeout––coaches can call timeouts on the underneath out-of-bounds play,” Oats said. “I should’ve called it, thought we were getting it in, but that’s on me.”

This led to Jahmai Mashack’s buzzer-beater to give Alabama the loss on the road.

“I was not good for the last 30 seconds today,” Oats said. I feel like I failed these guys. For 39.5 minutes they outplayed them.”

Free throws were the ultimate downfall for the Crimson Tide as it finished the game 17-for-26 (65 percent).