After a long month-plus away from the friendly confines of Coleman Coliseum, the 8th ranked Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the hated Creighton Blue Jays 83-75 on Saturday night. The Tide last played a home game on November 11th when they defeated McNesse 72-64. Alabama finally broke through and got the team’s first win over Creighton in four tries. Coach Nate Oats improved to 1-2 against the Blue Jays.
Oats stuck with the starting lineup of Mark Sears, LaBaron Philon, Grant Nelson, Jarin Stevenson, and Clifford Omoruyi. Senior USF transfer Chris Youngblood was available for the first time this season.
The Tide began the game playing good defense, collapsing down on Creighton big man Ryan Kalkbrenner, who came in averaging 17.3 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. Aiden Sherrell subbed in early for Omoruyi and at the 16:10 mark hit a three point shot to give the Tide a 16-10 lead. Hitting his first shot may not have been the best thing for Sherrell as he kept firing away trying to duplicate the feat. Sherrell finished 1-9 from the field, 1-5 from deep, in 10 minutes of play.
Youngblood checked in after the under 16 timeout and hit his first three with 13 minutes left in the half for a 16-7 lead. Mo Dioubate entered and scored, Omouryi had a dunk, and Philon was getting to the basket at will. When Sears made his first three pointer of the game Bama led 27-10 with 8:38 on the clock. Things quickly went down hill from there.
The Tide offense quit moving the ball around, quit driving the lane, and started firing up quick three point shots, and missing them, which allowed the Blue Jays to work their way back into the game. At the half the visitors had closed to within six points at 37-31. The Tide scored nine points in the last eight plus minutes of the period.
Bama shot 15-39 for 38% including 3-16 for 19% from deep. On top of that the Tide was only 4-7 at the free throw line. The team had six assists, four steals, no blocks, 29 rebounds, and only four turnovers. Philon with eight, Sears with seven, and Aden Holloway with six, led the scoring. Sherrell grabbed six rebounds and Nelson added five.
The Blue Jays shot even worse at 11-31 for 35%, 2-12 for 17% from deep, and made 7-9 free throws. Creighton had only 18 rebounds, three blocks, two steals, six assists, and five turnovers. Big man Ryan Kalkbrenner used his 7’1” frame to lead Creighton with 10 points.
The Tide used the same starters for the second half. Sears hit an early three to set the tone and Bama again looked to be pulling away, leading 51-39 with 16 minutes remaining in the game. A Derrion Reid breakaway dunk after a steal and another long ball from Sears had the Tide faithful feeling good with a 68-55 lead and 5:10 left on the clock. A clear out of bounds off the foot of a Blue Jay player robbed Bama of a possession and led to a Creighton three pointer at the other end, but a Sears three and another nifty move by Reid for a hoop seemed to give the Tide enough breathing room.
That’s when Creighton’s 6’10” freshman Jackson McAndrew all of a sudden turned into Steph Curry, throwing in three pointer after three pointer to keep the Jays within striking distance. Omoruyi and Sears sealed the deal with some clutch free throw shooting to hold off the comeback attempt.
In the second half the Tide shot 15-31 for 48%, but only 3-14 for 21% from behind the arc. With Sears leading the way the free throw shooting improved to 13-15 in the half. Overall Bama finished 30-70 for 43%, 6-30 for only 20% from deep, and 17-22 for 77% at the charity stripe. The Tide dominated the boards with 46, including 17 on the offensive end. Bama grabbed eight steals, did not block a shot, dished 13 assists, and committed 11 turnovers. Alabama scored 44 points in the paint even with the huge Kalkbrenner roaming the lane.
Sears had his best, most efficient, game of the year with 27 points on 8-15 shooting with 4-7 from deep, six rebounds, four assists, and only one turnover in 34 minutes. Sears was named both player of the game and the winner of the Hard Hat Award. Philon was able to finish time after time at the rim and scored 16 with five rebounds, and two assists. Reid played tough defense and scored 12 points with four rebounds and two assists. Nelson shot only 1-6 and scored four points, but led the team with 10 rebounds. Omoruyi did a good job of protecting the rim without fouling and scored eight points with four rebounds in 25 minutes. Youngblood hit Oats projection of 16 minutes of action and scored five points while trying to bust off the rust.
Creighton shot 16-29 for 55% in the second half with 6-15 for 40% from deep, along with 6-7 free throws. Overall the Blue Jays finished 27-60 for 45%, 8-27 for 30% from three and 13-16 for 81% at the line. Creighton had 32 rebounds, three blocks, six steals, 16 assists, and 13 turnovers. Pint size guard Steven Ashworth led the Blue Jays with 20 points and nine assists. The pesky Utah State transfer was a handful. Kalkbrenner finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, but the Tide did a nice job of controlling him. McAndrew used his 5-8 shooting from behind the arc to scored 16 points in 19 minutes. Jamiya Neal made a quartet of double figure scorers with 13 points and also led the team with eight rebounds.
After the game Oats said that “we started great in both halves, but didn’t finish either the way we should.” Oats went on to praise Sears as playing his best game and added that “we only had three in double figures, and two were freshman in Philon and Reid.” Adding that “they both did some good things, but also made some freshman mistakes that we need to iron out.” The sixth year coached noted that “I feel sure this win will go a long way in March.” In commenting on the Tide having the 6th best offensive efficiency numbers in the country, Oats said “ as poor as we are shooting, that is a tribute to what we are doing, when we start shooting the way we can that number will go up.”
Another good win against a really good team when the shots weren’t falling. Nine Tide players played double digit minutes, and another played eight minutes. Early season hero Mohamed Dioubate played only four minutes. Alabama’s depth has been well noted, but at times I feel it can be a blessing and a curse. Perhaps once SEC play begins the rotation may shorten up a bit. Some players, ahem Derrion Reid, are playing at a level where they need to be on the court more. On the other hand if a player is struggling or gets in foul trouble having a plug and play guy is a plus. Finding meaningful minutes for 12 legitimate players is going to be one of Oats and staff’s biggest issues throughout the season.
Next up is a long road trip to Nelson’s home state of North Dakota. The Tide will tip off at 8 p.m. CT against the University of North Dakota and the game will be on the CBS Sports Network.
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Blue Collar Basketball
