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Jeff Borzello
NEWARK, N.J. — Early in the second half of Alabama‘s 113-88 win over BYU, there were only two questions left to answer: Whether the Crimson Tide were going to set the NCAA tournament record for 3-pointers in a game — and if they saved some made shots for Saturday’s Elite Eight game.
Alabama broke the record on a Mark Sears 3-pointer with 7:41 left in the game, the team’s 22nd made 3 of the game, en route to a victory over the Cougars.
Alabama finished with 25 made 3-pointers, breaking the previous record of 21, set by Loyola Marymount in 1990. The Crimson Tide will play for the chance to go to their second straight Final Four on Saturday against the winner of Duke–Arizona.
“That was a fun game if you like offense,” coach Nate Oats said after the win.
“I loved watching them play,” Oats said of the fast-paced LMU team led by Bo Kimble. “That was my freshman year in high school that year. I remember Bo Kimble shooting left-handed free throws in honor of Hank [Gathers]. They got up-and-down. Maybe part of the reason we coach the way we coach.”
Sears, who was named a first-team All-American earlier this month, had one of the best performances in recent NCAA tournament history. He finished with 34 points, 10 made 3s and 8 assists. According to ESPN Research, Sears is the first player in NCAA tournament history to have eight 3s and eight assists in the same game.
“I was just in a zone,” Sears said. “Once I saw the first 3 fall in, I felt the basket was as big as an ocean. And every time I shot, I felt like it was going in. Just lost myself in the game and just let everything else happen.”
The senior guard had entered the game in a shooting slump, going just 5-for-35 from 3-point range in his last six games.
“I’ve gotta teach these guys some math,” Oats said. “I told Sears there’s a thing called regression to the mean.”
Alabama opened the game with six 3-pointers in the first seven minutes and had 12 made 3s with just under five minutes left in the first half. BYU was matching the Tide shot for shot in the first half, with both teams making 17 field goals in the first minutes.
The problem for BYU was that 12 of Alabama’s field goals were from 3, and the Cougars were just 1-for-13 from behind the arc. For a team that ranked in the top 10 nationally in 3-pointers per game, at 10.6 per game, it was a concern.
Meanwhile, Alabama was basically doing the opposite of what had brought the Tide success in their first two wins of the NCAA tournament. Through the first weekend of the tourney, Alabama had more points in the paint than any team in the field, making a combined 50 2-pointers in the Crimson Tide’s wins over Robert Morris and Saint Mary’s.
Against BYU on Thursday, they made just 10 shots inside the arc.
Oats had recognized a weakness in BYU’s ball-screen coverages — the Cougars going under screens and giving the ball-handler space as opposed to chasing him over the top of the screen — and put an emphasis on it in the team’s scouting report.
“They had been going under ball-screens just about every game we watched,” Oats said. “I told both those guys, [Aden] Holloway and Sears, man, I hope they go under us because we’re going to rain ’em … With their personnel, we knew that once they started going under, they always collapse. They kind of have to. They got away with it against some teams that don’t space like we do. But I told these guys going in, if you move the ball … our offense is designed to beat a defense like this.”
Alabama extended its 11-point halftime lead to 16 points early in the second half, but BYU was able to cut it to single-digits a couple of times midway through the period. Both times, Holloway made 3-pointers to change the momentum and BYU trailed by double-digits the rest of the game.
Holloway finished with 23 points and six 3-pointers off the bench, while Chris Youngblood had 19 points and five 3-pointers.
“We felt like it would be hard for them to sustain that, and so that’s where you have to give them credit because they did,” BYU coach Kevin Young said. “That’s where I’m disappointed at myself for not being able to find a solution. But some nights you’re trying everything, and it doesn’t seem to work.
“But that’s a really good basketball team. I mean, it was an all-time night for them. It felt like there was nothing we could do at times.”
Alabama likely won’t repeat its historic shooting performance against Duke or Arizona on Saturday, but the Crimson Tide will hope that Oats’ “regression to the mean” comment doesn’t work the other way in 48 hours.
“I don’t know that we’re going to repeat 51 threes attempted,” Oats said, “but we’re going to have the guys ready to play the right way, in my opinion, and fresh.”
