Alabama came into the Sweet 16 favored by 4.5 against BYU. The Cougars ran into an absolute buzzsaw, however, and were sent home 113-88.
The first half of this one was the Mark Sears show. After a stretch of cold shooting games, Mark lit the Cougars up to the tune of 17 points and 5/7 from three, adding five assists for good measure. He led an Alabama offense that shot 12/27 from beyond the arc, as BYU opted to pack things in defensively rather than run Alabama off the three point line. On the other end, BYU couldn’t make anything outside at 1/13, but did manage five offensive boards to keep things closer than they could have been considering that three point disparity, and the Tide took a 51-40 lead into the break.
BYU came out of the locker room ready to fight, but Alabama just wouldn’t quit making threes. When it was all said and done, Sears had the all time individual NCAA tournament record, and Alabama had crushed the team record that had stood since 1990. The Tide made 25 three pointers, more than the famed Loyola Marymount squad coached by Paul Westhead that didn’t even pretend to play defense.
That really was the story of this game. Alabama didn’t play particularly well on defense and made only a token effort to get the ball into the paint. On most nights, BYU’s 88 points would have them right in the thick of things. Alabama’s offense was just far too good tonight, and that was that.
The Tide will now await the winner of Duke and Arizona, who play in a few minutes. On to the Elite Eight it is.
Roll Tide.
