Auburn Auburn/Alabama Alabama Men's College Basketball recap on ESPN

Dudley grabbed three offensive rebounds and hit two free throws with 7.5 seconds remaining as Alabama (No. 15 ESPN/USA Today, No. 18 AP) beat Auburn 81-80 Saturday night.

"Well, it was a typical Auburn-Alabama game tonight," Crimson Tide coach Mark Gottfried said. "We had two good teams going at each other hard."

The play of Dudley, along with Travis Stinnett's five 3-pointers and career-high 17 points, negated an impressive Auburn comeback.

The Tide (16-3, 5-2 Southeastern Conference) opened the second half on a 9-0 run to take a 51-35 lead. The Tigers hit six second-half 3-pointers to climb back into it.

Adam Harrington's 3 with 53 seconds left gave Auburn (12-8, 2-5) its first lead since midway through the first half. Then Stinnett missed a 3-pointer, but the Tigers' Abdou Diame was whistled for a foul after Dudley grabbed the rebound.

Alabama inbounded the ball, but Doc Martin missed another shot and Dudley grabbed the rebound but was fouled.

Rod Grizzard missed badly on an off-balance jumper on the baseline but again, Dudley grabbed the rebound and was fouled.

He made both free throws to finish with 15 points and eight rebounds.

"Those three rebounds at the end were the key to the ball game," said Auburn coach Cliff Ellis, whose team gave up 24 offensive boards. "There were too many offensive rebounds for us to overcome. Both teams played their hearts out."

Jamison Brewer missed a driving shot in the final seconds and Alabama's Gerald Wallace claimed the rebound.

The Tigers also missed a last-second shot in a 65-63 loss to Florida on Wednesday night.

"We thought we had them," said Harrington, who finished with a game-high 21 points. "We were up big (in the first half) and they came back. They were up big and we came back. Their big guys dominated."

The little guys didn't do badly either.

The 6-foot Stinnett had 14 first-half points, going 4-for-4 from 3-point range in 12 minutes. He had only played in 11 games, never more than 11 minutes in any, this season after missing most of the past two seasons due to injury.

"I was pretty wide-open in the beginning," the redshirt sophomore said. "I had my adrenaline pumping. At the timeout, I finally realized a lot of people were screaming at me."

Terrance Meade had 14 points and Martin 11. Wallace collected eight points, 12 rebounds and four assists.

Auburn's Marquis Daniels scored 14 of his 18 in the second half, when Lincoln Glass had all 14 points, including four 3-pointers. Jamison Brewer added 12 points and five assists.

After Alabama built its biggest lead, the Tigers answered with a 17-7 spurt capped by Jamison Brewer's layin with 11 minutes left.

Daniels tied the game at 77 with 1:40 left. Grizzard's leaner 30 seconds later gave Alabama the lead.

Both teams threatened to run away with it in the first half. The Tigers jumped out to a 14-4 lead to silence a sellout crowd, getting eight points from Harrington.

Stinnett then sparked a 29-6 run with four 3-pointers in less than six minutes to put the Tide up 33-20. Alabama forced nine turnovers during the stretch, holding the Tigers scoreless for nearly six minutes.

Auburn answered with a 9-0 run and went into halftime down 42-35.

Grizzard, the conference's leading scorer, missed all six shots and scored two points in the half to go with three steals. He finished with nine points.

The announced crowd of 15,316 was the largest to attend an on-campus basketball game between Auburn and Alabama.

Auburn had won four of the teams' last five meetings.

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