The 4th seeded Alabama Crimson Tide dismantled 5th seeded Texas Tech 90-65 on Sunday night in Tampa, FL. The Tide improved to 24-9 on the season while Tech ended their season with a record of 23-10. The reward is a match up with number one seed Michigan on Friday night at 6:35 p.m; CT in Chicago. Bama used 19 made three pointers to win in a runaway manner. With the win coach Nate Oats has taken his team to the Sweet 16 for four straight years and five times in the last six years. The victory was
Oats 13th NCAA tournament victory, breaking a tie with former Tide coach Wimp Sanderson. Sanderson took six of his Alabama teams to the round of 16 and now Oats is breathing down the neck of that record as well.
The Tide went with a starting lineup of Labaron Philon, Latrell Wrightsell, Amari Allen, London Jemison, and Aiden Sherrell. The Red Raiders trotted out LeJuan Watts, Christian Anderson, Luke Bamgboye, Jaylen Petty, and Donovan Atwell.
The game started off even, but the Tide quickly took control. With the score 7-7 at the 15:53 Houston Mallette hit a three pointer and team was off and running. Philon followed with a make from long range, Sherrell made a hoop down low and Taylor Bol Bowen came in a knocked down a three for a 20-9 lead with 12:15 left in the half. Wrightsell dialed in from long distance and Philon hit a sick step back corner three for a 27-10 score with 9:30 remaining. At that point the sometimes rebounding challenged Tide had seven offensive boards. The energy, the defense, the blue collar mentality, were all on display like no other time this season.
Bama continued to pour it on. Noah Williamson scored down low, Wrightsell hit from downtown again, and Williamson hit a corner three for a 40-21 lead with 3:20 left in the half. Mallette hit another three, Sherrell knocked one down, and Mallette followed with his third from long range in the half and the score was 49-23 with 50 seconds on the clock. The Tide turned the ball over right before the half ended and TTU made a layup to make the score 49-25 at the break.
Alabama shot 17-39 for 44%, 11-27 from three for 41%, and only 4-7 on free throws. Bama grabbed 30 big rebounds with 12 of those on the offensive end. The Tide had 14 assists, three blocks, six steals, and six turnovers. Sherrell led the scorers with 10 points, while Wrightsell and Mallette had nine each. Philon had seven points, six rebounds, and six assists at the break.
Texas Tech shot 10-31 for 32%, 2-13 for 15% from three, and 3-6 at the charity stripe. The Raiders had 16 rebounds, four assists, one block, four steals, and seven turnovers. Leon Horner scored six points to lead the team. Anderson and Petty each scored five.
The Tide sent the same starting five out for the second half and it didn’t take them long to put the game away. A couple of three’s by Wrightsell had Bama take a 52-28 lead with 19:10 left in the game. Allen and Sherrell both picked up their third fouls by the time the 17:40 was left on the clock. Jemison hit from long distance and Wrightsell kept on sniping. With 15:45 remains the score was 55-35. The Alabama defense and rebounding were outstanding, which hasn’t been said a lot this season.
Wrightsell made 3-3 at the free throw line with 13:42 left for a 63-39 score. Mallette heated up and hit back to back from deep, Wrightsell continued draining shots and Noah Williamson joined the party. Wrightsell’s sixth make from long range made the score 80-49 with seven minutes left. Allen went on a tear and made a few baskets driving to the hoop. With 4:42 left Allen made an old fashioned three point play, and from there forward Bama shut down and didn’t score the rest of the way. The Raiders scored the last nine points of the game to make the score look a little more respectable at 90-65. This was an outright mauling by the Tide.
Alabama shot 13-29 for 45% in the half with 8-15 from three and 7-8 at the line. Overall Bama was 30-68 for 44%, 19-42 for 45% from deep, and 11-15 at the charity stripe. The Tide finished with 47 rebounds including 18 offensive boards, dished out 25 assists, blocked five shots, stole eight balls, and turned it over 13 times. Wrightsell made 6-9 from deep and finished with 24 points with four rebounds and two steals, in addition to playing stellar defense. Mallette did a little of everything and scored 15 points with eight rebounds and won the hard hat award by throwing his body all over the place during the game. Sherrell finished with 10 points, two rebounds, one assist, one block, and two steals. Philon shooting and scoring were down to only nine points, but made up for it with a career high 12 assists with six rebounds. Williamson played on of his better games with eight points, two rebounds, two assists, and a steal. Bol Bowen was fantastic on defense and contributed five points, five rebounds, two blocks, two steals, and two assists.
Texas Tech shot 11-30 in the second half with 2-12 from three point range and made 16-18 free throws. Overall the Raiders shot 21-61 for 34%, 4-25 for 16% from deep, and 19-24 at the charity stripe. TTU finished with 35 rebounds, eight assists, four blocks, nine steals, and committed 10 turnovers. Watts led the team with 16 points and had seven rebounds. Atwell added 12 points and Horner finished in double figures with 10.
This was just a fantastic performance by the Tide. The team came out early and never really let up. The energy and buy in was complete by all the players. Overall the best sustained effort the team has shown all year. Given the circumstances of injuries and distractions the ceiling for this team was probably always the Sweet 16 and a great job was done by Oats and staff to reach this point. Now the next thing is “‘might as well win the whole damn thing.” That will be tough as Bama takes on number one seed Michigan on Friday night in Chicago. The game is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. CT.
Roll Tide! 🏀🐘
