AUBURN, Ala. -- Alabama's point guard was in foul trouble, its lead was dwindling and Auburn had converted two quick turnovers into dunks.
Then, the 14th-ranked Crimson Tide managed to break out of an offensive funk in time to escape with a 60-55 victory Wednesday night.
"If anything wakes us up, that would do it," said Earnest Shelton, who led Alabama with 22 points. "We had to find a way to get it done. We needed baskets, we needed stops."
The Crimson Tide (16-3, 5-1 Southeastern Conference) got just enough of both after watching a 15-point lead dwindle to one with some sloppy play. But Chuck Davis hit two free throws and drove for a basket to help secure Alabama's fourth straight win over its archrival.
Alabama vaulted eight spots in the rankings this week but couldn't pull off the expected blowout of the Tigers (9-9, 0-5), who had lost their previous league games by an average 21.5 points. They were allowing 87 points in the SEC.
"We stunk it up offensively and got a road win in this league," Tide coach Mark Gottfried said. "We'll be pleased with that."
Kennedy Winston had 16 points for the Tide and made all four 3-point attempts while Shelton was 5-of-10 from 3-point range. Instead of taking advantage of a big size edge inside against Division I's smallest team, Alabama did much of its damage far from the basket, making 11-of-22 3-pointers.
Davis had 10 points and Jermareo Davidson had 14 rebounds for Alabama.
The Tide built a 44-29 lead with 12 minutes left on Winston's 3-pointer, but struggled offensively after that with point guard Ron Steele heading to the bench with four fouls midway through the half and fouling out in the final minutes.
"He's been running our team," Shelton said. "It's kind of hard, but we found a way to get a win without him."
But not before "we did the worst thing we could do -- we turned the ball over," he said. "We almost shot ourselves in the foot."
Auburn's Quinnel Brown forced two straight turnovers, heaving a pass to Nathan Watson for one dunk and finishing the second off with a dunk of his own to cut it to 53-52 with 2:30 left.
"I looked up at the clock and it really didn't have much of an effect on me," said Davis, who responded with two free throws and a leaner in the paint to push the lead back to five points with a minute to play. "It really shocked me to see Auburn that close."
Watson made one of two free throws with 39 seconds left and Steele's sub, Albert Weber, missed two free throws to keep Auburn's hopes alive.
But the Tigers couldn't get an open 3-point attempt, having to settle for Toney Douglas' off-balance shot inside the line. Winston added two free throws with 6 seconds left.
"We had every chance to win the game and that's all we can ask of these kids," Auburn coach Jeff Lebo said.
Watson led Auburn with 13 points, Ian Young had 11 points and six assists, and Brown had 10 points and seven rebounds. Douglas, the SEC's leading scorer, was held to nine points -- 10 below his average -- on 4-of-13 shooting.
Alabama was only 6-of-17 shooting in the second half but made four 3-pointers and 13 of 17 free throws.
"They never allowed us to get in an offensive flow like we have the last few games," Gottfried said. "We want the ball to go inside, and then we're tentative on some perimeter shots. I really didn't think we really opened up and played."
The first half went in similar fashion. The Tide hit five consecutive 3s to build a 13-point lead and was in front 31-22 at the break. The Tigers, meanwhile, made only one of six 3s in their lowest-scoring half of the season.
