AUBURN — Nate Oats didn't even have to look at box scores or the latest SEC standings. He knew.

The door had been left ajar. Alabama had done nothing at Neville Arena to move toward closing it, much less slam it shut.

No. 16 Alabama had just dropped a game 99-81 to No. 11 Auburn on Wednesday, handing the Crimson Tide its second conference loss with eight SEC games to go. Alabama went from sole possession of first place in the conference to in the middle of a three-team mess. Once Tennessee catches up in games played, that could turn into a four-team tie.

"We could have separated ourselves a little bit and we didn’t," Oats said. "Now I’m guessing, I haven’t looked at the scores, but I’m guessing we’re in a four-way tie in the loss column for first place. We’ve got some work to do these last eight games."

Especially if Alabama wants to still have a shot at the regular season conference title for a second consecutive year and third time in four seasons.

The good news is that it's still very much in play. Alabama's hopes to win the conference certainly aren't gone. There's just less margin for error.

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Alabama, Auburn and South Carolina each have 8-2 conference records. Meanwhile, Tennessee sits half a game back with a 7-2 conference record.

All four have a legitimate shot at the title.

"I felt like going in, this game was clearly the biggest regular season gave we’ve had this year because if Alabama gets this one, they’re two games up on us and we’re probably not in the championship race," Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. "We’d like to still be in it. We put ourselves in a position where we’re still in it."

Auburn will want to replicate Wednesday as much as possible to try to win the conference. Alabama, meanwhile, will not.

The Tigers outrebounded the Crimson Tide 42-35 and had the edge in points off turnovers, points in the paint, second-chance points, fast-break points and bench points. Alabama had 15 turnovers to Auburn's 5, and the Tigers scored 22 points off them.

Alabama struggled when it came to effort-type stats, and Oats made sure to point that out postgame.

"Auburn was ready to go," Oats said. "We weren’t. It was for first place. They came out and played like it was for first place."

And now Auburn is in a tie for first place with Alabama, and South Carolina.

It's a step back, but it's not a step out of the race. Far from it. The loss doesn't doom Alabama. In fact, it was somewhat expected. Winning at Neville Arena is always difficult, especially when you inflict wounds on yourself against a good Auburn team. There might not be a tougher place the Crimson Tide will play this season.

That includes road trips to Kentucky and Florida, both of which won't be easy. But KenPom projects Alabama to win the rest of its conference games. So it's certainly possible the Crimson Tide wins out.

With two conference losses, Alabama should be in a prime position to win the SEC in the regular season, if that's how it plays out.

But the Crimson Tide is going to have to ditch some of the issues that flared up in Auburn, to the best of its ability. If not, there could be more SEC losses on the way. Then the door to winning the SEC would be slammed alright. Slammed shut on Alabama's hopes.

Nick Kelly is the Alabama beat writer for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network, and he covers Alabama football and men's basketball. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: SEC standings: What Alabama basketball loss to Auburn means