The official start of the opening round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament may still be 12 days away, but March Madness is very much alive on the final Saturday of the 2024-25 college basketball regular season. On a day in which St. John's forward Zuby Ejiofor ended one top 25 matchup with a game-winning shot at the buzzer, Alabama's Mark Sears put the finishing touches on the top-ranked Auburn Tigers with a buzzer-beater of his own in what was without question one of the best games of the season thus far.

It was only one week ago when Alabama lost a game at the buzzer thanks to Tennessee's Jahmal Mashack, who rattled in a triple as time expired to give the Volunteers a 79-76 win over the Crimson Tide. But Sears' off-balance game-winner not only does wonders in remedying that loss to the Vols, but also the defeat at the hands of Auburn earlier this year when the two in-state rivals played for the first time in Tuscaloosa.

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Sears, the SEC's second-leading scorer, only had 9 points in the 93-91 win, but his two in the final seconds proved to be the most crucial. Senior forward Grant Nelson led all members of the Crimson Tide in scoring with 23 points. On the opposite side, it was National Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome who led the Tigers with 34 points, including a game-tying three-pointer with under 15 seconds left.

Auburn will enter the SEC Tournament as the top overall seed, while the win on the road locks Alabama in as the 3rd seed in this week's tournament. Both teams will receive a double-bye into the quarterfinals and will play their first game of the tournament on Friday.