Nate Oats has his 2nd seeded Crimson Tide team on the prowl for another Final Four appearance after defeating BYU 113-88 behind a barrage of three pointers on Thursday night. The Tide improved to 28-8 while the Cougars ended their season with a 26-10 record. The game was played in Newark, NJ. Alabama set an NCAA Tournament record with 25 made threes. The Tide reached the round of eight for the third time in history, and second season in a row.
The Tide used their normal starting lineup of Mark Sears, Labaron Philon, Chris Youngblood, Grant Nelson, and Clifford Omoruyi.
The first half was a fast paced, up and down, exciting period. Nelson scored the games first basket and Sears followed with the rare Alabama mid range jump shot for a 4-0 lead. The Cougars then went on a 9-0 run to take the lead 9-4 with 16:50 left. Sears nailed a three pointer on the next possesion, and Philon followed with one of his own. At the under four timeout BYU lead 13-12.
After the timeout Aden Holloway, Aiden Sherrell, Mo Dioubate, and Jarin Stevenson joined Sears on the floor. Holloway and Sherrell both hit from deep and the Tide led 18-17 at the 14:10 mark. The next three Tide baskets were three pointers from Sears, Holloway, and Philon for a 30-26 lead with 9:54 left. Nelson made a flying dunk and Sears hit his fourth three of the half. However the Tide could not run away from the Cougars because BYU was scoring at will in the paint. Youngblood nailed a couple from long range, sandwiched around Sears fifth make from behind the arc.
A flagrant foul of Youngblood led to two free throws and the ball, and the Tide capitalized with two makes at the line and a dunk by Omoruyi. At the half Bama took the lead 51-40 as Nelson blocked a BYU three point attempt at the buzzer.
The Tide shot 17-34 for 50% in the half with 12-27 from three point range and made 5-6 free throws. Bama grabbed 18 rebounds, three offensively, blocked one shot, made five steals, dished out 14 assists, and turned it over seven times. Sears had 17 points on 6-9 shooting and five assists with two rebounds. Youngblood added eight and Holloway tossed in seven points. Omoruyi led the team with four rebounds.
BYU shot 17-37 for 46%, 1-13 for 8% from three, and 5-5 at the charity stripe. The Cougars had 19 rebounds with five offensive boards, one block, five steals, nine assists, and seven turnovers. Richie Saunders scored 12 to lead the team.
The Tide used the same starters in the second half. After only one made three pointer in the first half the Cougars got one right off the bat to cut the lead to 51-43. Sears and Omouryi made two free throws apiece to keep the lead at 10 with a 55-45 score with 18:31 left in the game.
Sears continued his hot shooting with two threes wrapped around a Omoruyi dunk for a 63-47 lead with 16:48 remaining. After a relatively loose whistle in the first half the officials started calling fouls on almost every possession. The Cougars were in the bonus with 14 minutes left in the game. With just over 13 minutes left BYU drew with six points at 67-61, but a Holloway make from distance pushed the lead back to 10, and it never got that close again.
Holloway, Sears, and Youngblood took turns splashing in three pointers and when Sears hit another with just under eight minutes left it was his ninth to break Jean Felix’s Alabama record for three’s in a NCAA Tournament game. With 6:20 on the clock Sears made his 10th from distance to put the Tide over the century mark for the ninth time this season. The lead was 100-77 at that point.
Oats had his guys take the air out of the ball over the last five minutes, and the Tide did enough reach 113 points, their highest mark of the season.
In the second half the Tide shot 18-32 for 56%, 13-24 from three for 54%, 13-15 from the charity stripe for 87% Overall the team shot 35-66 for 49%, 25-41 for 49% from three, 18-21 for 86% at the line, grabbed 37 rebounds, had three blocks, eight steals, 27 assists, and committed 13 turnovers. Sears was 11-18 from the field, 10-16 from three, 2-2 at the free throw line to score 34 points while dishing out eight assists, and grabbing three rebounds. Holloway hit 7-14 field goals, 6-13 from three and scored 23 points with two rebounds and three assists. Youngblood tossed in 19 on 6-12 shooting, 5-11 from deep, and had three rebounds. The fourth guard of the group, Philon, scored eights with six assists and two rebounds. The four Tide guards combined for 82 of the teams points. Omouryi scored 10 and had six rebounds and block. Nelson won the hard hat award with his six point, 10 rebound, three assists, and one block performance. Sears was named player of the game.
BYU shot 16-35 for 46% in the half with 5-17 for 29% from three. The Cougars shot 11-15 at the free throw line. Overall the team finished 33-72 for 46%, 6-30 for 20% from deep, and 16-20 for 80% at the line. The Cougars had 36 rebounds, one block, 10 steals, 19 assists, and had 11 turnovers. Sanders continued his stellar play in the NCAA Tournament with 25 points with six rebounds.
What a win for the Tide. In the first two games of the NCAA Tournament Bama found a way to win without the three ball. Tonight that changed. The 25 made threes broke the NCAA record of 22 previously held by Loyala-Marymount University. Sears set the Alabama record for made threes in a tournament game with his 10. When asked about Sears night Oats said “I told Mark about regression to the mean.” Sears had been 5-35 over his last five games for 14%. Oats continued “ I told him, you aren’t a 14% shooter, you will be alright.” Oats joked that Sears was playing chess not checkers by making people believe he couldn’t shoot.
Oats noted that Sears, Holloway, and Youngblood combined to make 21 three pointers, and that Philon did a great job moving the ball and was also 2-3 from three point range. Oats said he was happy to be able to divide up the minutes with Sears leading the way with only 30.
Sears was asked “what does if feel like when you are going like that?” Sears answered “ I was in the zone, the basket looked like an ocean.” When asked did you feel this game coming, the All American said “we prepared all week for this.” Holloway was asked how did the team shoot this well and answered “with the three of us here (Sears, Youngblood, and himself) a wide open three is a layup in my mind.” Youngblood added “with the defense they run with proper spacing we can do it.”
In the first half the Tide took 80% of their shots from three point range, and dropped off to “only” 77% of shots from deep in the second half. A great job of taking what you are given by Alabama. The Tide is the first team to score at least 100 points in a Sweet 16 game since North Carolina in 2016. The 113 points are the most scored by anyone since seeding began in 1979, and beat the 1985 record of 108 by Oklahoma since the field expanded.
When the Tide shoots like this they are the best team in the country. Lets ride it for three more games!
Roll Tide
