Alabama basketball's season ends with Elite Eight loss to Duke

NEWARK, N.J. — Alabama’s run in the 2025 NCAA Tournament came to an end in the Elite Eight, falling to 1-seed Duke by a final score of 85-65.

The loss ends the Crimson Tide’s season, finishing with a 28-9 overall record following a second straight Elite Eight appearance and fourth Sweet 16 appearance in five years.

Alabama went with its typical starting five of Mark Sears, Labaron Philon, Chris Youngblood, Grant Nelson and Cliff Omoruyi to begin the night.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Duke got off to a very quick start, with the Tide suffering from a couple early defensive breakdowns and struggling to get quality looks on its first few offensive trips down the floor. The Blue Devils took advantage, building an early 13-5 lead at the game’s first media timeout.

The Tide went down as early as 10 in the opening minutes, but didn’t stop fighting. Aiden Sherrell made his presence felt by knocking down two threes in his first few possessions to get Alabama back in the game. Alabama still struggled to get consistent stops, but found itself down 23-17 at the under-12 timeout.

Alabama got the lead all the way back down to four, but a quick 7-0 Duke run stretch that lead back out to 11, the biggest of the night for the Blue Devils. Alabama’s defense allowed Duke to hit 60 percent of its shots from the floor through the first quarter of the game, and at the under-8 timeout the Tide found itself down 30-22.

As the first half drew near to a close each team started trading runs. Duke went on a run, Alabama went on a run, Duke went on another run. The Blue Devils proved why they had the best record in college basketball coming into the game, but Alabama didn’t quit.

Duke went into halftime holding a 9-point lead, 46-37. Mark Sears didn’t score his first points until about two minutes left in the first half, which greatly limited Alabama’s offense. Duke’s length was bothersome on both ends, but the Tide showed signs of life with a bucket right before half.

Nine of Alabama’s 10 players scored in the first half, Nelson and Sherrell leading the way with six points each.

Alabama came out of the gate in the second half ready to trade punched. Nelson made a huge highlight play with a block of Cooper Flagg at the rim, and a few Alabama buckets later had the Blue Devil lead down to an even closer number. Youngblood made an and-one going into the under-16 timeout, making the score 52-45 in Duke’s favor.

As the second half wore on, the same problem from the first half persisted — a struggle to string multiple stops together in a row. Duke had its lead stretched back out to the double-digit threshold, leading 59-48 at the under-12 timeout.

The Crimson Tide kept battling and battling, but every time it cut the lead down to seven or eight points, Duke pushed it right back out to double figures. At a timeout with 6:39 to go the Blue Devils led by 11, with Alabama running out of time to make a run.

Unfortunately for the Tide, it continued to be unable to find clean looks at the rim thanks to the length of Duke’s defense, and never threatened again before the final buzzer.

PLAYERS OF THE GAME

Labaron Philon — 16 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists

Chris Youngblood — 10 points, 4 rebounds

Grant Nelson — 10 points, 7 rebounds

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