Auburn Upsets Rival No. 12 Alabama
Auburn 81, Alabama 57
Wednesday, January 24, 2007; 12:02 AM
AUBURN, Ala. -- The Auburn Tigers were racking up breakaway dunks, sneaking to the basket for uncontested layups and generally having no problems scoring against No. 12 Alabama.
The Tigers put an emphatic end to a seven-game losing streak against the Crimson Tide, using quickness and a dominant second half to beat their in-state rival 81-57 on Tuesday night.
  Alabama's Alonzo Gee (12) dunks over Auburn's Josh Dollard, left, and Rasheem Barrett during the first half of a college basketball game, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2007 in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo/Rob Carr) (Rob Carr - AP) College Tip-Off A number of traditional powers in college basketball feature lineups dotted with freshmen who might have otherwise gone directly to the NBA.
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The Tigers (13-8, 3-3 Southeastern Conference) scored the first eight points of the second half to overcome a 36-35 deficit and hardly looked back.
Auburn hadn't beaten Alabama (15-4, 2-3) since 2003 and has now won two games against ranked teams in a six-day stretch after ending an 0-for-15 stretch against then-No. 22 Tennessee.
"That's as good as we can play in the second half," Auburn coach Jeff Lebo said. "It's a good win if you're an Auburn fan. We took a step into the pond with the win over Tennessee. We dove in tonight."
Korvotney Barber scored 18 points, Frank Tolbert added 17 and Josh Dollard had 16 for the Tigers. Quan Prowell had 14 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Tolbert made 6-of-7 shots, the only miss an errant 3-pointer in the final two minutes.
They played some defense, too. Alabama managed just 21 points and shot just 32 percent after halftime.
The Tide's road struggles continued. Alabama has lost its first three SEC road games by an average of 24 points to unranked teams. Western Division teams are now 0-15 in SEC road games.
Alabama coach Mark Gottfried was left wondering what went wrong after his team had "kind of a meltdown" in the second half.
"We've just got to find some answers," Gottfried said. "We've got to go back and work hard. We've got to do a lot of things to get ourselves back where we need to be. I don't think right now we're playing nearly the way we can play."
It was the largest victory margin of any unranked Auburn team against a ranked foe. The Tigers surpassed their win total of last season.
