The stakes couldn’t have been much higher for an SEC Tournament semifinal game.

The winner not only would secure a spot in the championship game but also likely lock up the final No. 1 seed in March Madness. Lose, and your fate is all but cemented as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament with no chance to win the conference tournament.

Talk about pressure.

Florida rose to the occasion, asserting itself as perhaps the best team in the country. Alabama, meanwhile, did not.

The No. 2 seeded Gators routed the No. 3 seeded Crimson Tide 104-82 on Saturday at Bridgestone Arena. Now, Alabama turns its attention to NCAA Tournament selection Sunday.

Here are three takeaways from the game between Alabama (25-8) and Florida (29-4).

Postseason Jarin Stevenson shows up in first half but not second

Far too often during the regular season, Stevenson didn’t live up to his potential. The postseason version of him for three of four halves had been the complete opposite.

First, he scored 16 points and grabbed three steals against Kentucky in the quarterfinals. Then Stevenson kept it rolling in the first half against Florida.

Stevenson scored nine points before the break, knocking down two triples. He also grabbed a rebound and tallied an assist.

Stevenson’s nine points in the first half tied Grant Nelson for the most among Crimson Tide players in the opening frame. All of it was needed in the all-out battle against Florida.

The two teams traded blows early and often. They each hit at least five triples before halftime and finished with close to the same number of rebounds: 22 for Florida and 20 for Alabama.

While Stevenson and Nelson shined early for Alabama, Walter Clayton Jr. became Florida’s early star. He hit four triples to score 12 points before the break.

As a result, the Gators led the Crimson Tide 47-45 at halftime.

Stevenson couldn’t keep that up in the second half, though. After he shined in the first half, he became a non-factor in the second, scoring only one point while missing all six of his field goal attempts.

Alabama star guards don’t step up with Grant Nelson out

The backcourt for the Crimson Tide put together an overall lackluster performance.

After Labaron Philon looked like a star against Kentucky scoring 21 points, the Gators pulled off a magic trick and made him disappear. Philon didn’t score his first bucket until 5:29 remained in the game, his only score of the day as he finished 1-for-9.

And he wasn’t the only one who all but disappeared when the game was close. Aden Holloway also struggled to make much of an impact on the game coming off the bench. Mark Sears saw his impact limited too. He missed 3-pointers and often couldn’t finish at the rim. Sears didn’t make a field goal in the second half.

The shutdown of Alabama’s backcourt became most clear and decisive early in the second half. Outside of Chris Youngblood who scored 11 points in the second half, neither Philon nor Sears nor Holloway could do much anything.

That opened the door for a 17-2 run from the Gators over about four minutes early in the second half.

It’s no coincidence Florida took over like it did once Nelson was out of the game. The forward went to the locker room late in the first half with a left leg injury and never returned. He had been dominant on offense and defense, tallying nine points, three rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal over 10 minutes of play.

Even with him in the game, Alabama was going to need its guards to play better. So without Nelson, that only made the case of the disappearing guards hurt even more.

Florida wins battle on the glass, again

Alabama hasn’t lost the rebounding battle much this season, but now the Gators have done it twice to the Crimson Tide.

At Coleman Coliseum, Florida outrebounded Alabama 50-35. Then at Bridgestone Arena, the Gators outrebounded the Crimson Tide 43-38.

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.