Give Alabama basketball fans and their deafening decibels an assist in win vs Auburn | Goodbread

At the bottom of the box score from the Alabama basketball team's thrilling, improbable, white-knuckle comeback of an overtime win over Auburn on Wednesday night, a line needs to be added:

Crowd | 5 points | 1 assist

That's the margin by which the Crimson Tide knocked off the rival Tigers, 90-85, and if the crowd didn't make a five-point difference in assisting Alabama by the force of sheer will and decibels, then make it 10. Because two full weeks before the NCAA Tournament commences, a postseason atmosphere energized a sold-out Coleman Coliseum on a Wednesday night.

Is that to be expected with Auburn in town? Sure.

Is it to be expected when the team was playing to close out an undefeated run at home (15-0) for just the third time in program history? Yes again.

But filling seats is one thing.

Raucous cheers for the home team when it trails by 17 points with 10 minutes to go is something else. Half the place stood on its feet after Jahvon Quinerly, when hope for a win had all but slipped away, drove for a layup to trim the lead to 66-51 with 9:32 remaining. A member of the Sounding Board, a group of Alabama fans who contribute to my occasional mailbag column, messaged me as Auburn's comfortable lead became very uncomfortable in the closing minutes:

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"Been coming to games 45 years and never heard it this loud."

It was, in a word, deafening.

And a fitting way to ring in the month of March for a team that looks bound for postseason success. As the Crimson Tide (26-4, 15-1 SEC) has burst into the rarified air of a potential No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed − a place it looked miles away from at exactly this time one year ago − the Alabama crowd has surged right along with it. Wednesday served as the exclamation point.

Coleman rocked when Alabama was down 10 in the first half.

It rocked when Mark Sears drained a 3-pointer to open the second half.

And it rocked when starting center Charles Bediako and key reserve Rylan Griffen were ejected in the second half for illegal participation.

It never didn't rock.

When it ended, Alabama celebrated with its second outright Southeastern Conference regular-season championship in the last three years. Minutes later, coach Nate Oats acknowledged the impact of the noise.

"They brought the energy and that fueled our run in the second half," he said.

Oats should know: He raised the roof on command whenever he wanted more juice in the joint with a mere wave of his arms.

For three solid hours − that's how long this marathon lasted thanks to overtime and an absurdly long delay while officials reviewed the sequence for which Bediako and Griffen were ejected − it was easy to forget that Alabama wants out of this building as quickly as possible. It was only 13 months ago that the school unveiled artist renderings for a new arena and, given that the price tag on it has risen by almost $70 million since then, it seems like a decade ago.

On this night, Coleman was a house for basketball and basketball only. Alabama fans deserved a season with far less controversy, but they couldn't have asked for a better team.

And on this night, the Crimson Tide couldn't have asked for more support.

Reach Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama basketball fans at Coleman Coliseum the difference vs Auburn