Alabama opens NCAA Tournament with record-breaking offensive outing

The Alabama men’s basketball team eclipsed the 100-point mark for the 10th time this year in its 109-96 win over Charleston in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.

That broke a tie with Kentucky’s 1995-96 team for the most games with 100 or more points by an SEC team in a single season. The scoring output was also the most points scored by Alabama in an NCAA Tournament, surpassing the 97 the Tide scored against Xavier in 1986.

“They were terrific tonight,” said Charleston head coach Pat Kelsey. “Whatever they shot, (65) percent from three … that’s hard to do with nobody in the gym. I felt like every time it left their fingers, the ball was like going in. The rim looked really big. They hit us in the mouth.”

After trailing 19-13 at the 12:38 mark of the first half, Alabama out-scored the Cougars, 38-15, to take a 51-34 lead into its locker room inside Spokane Arena. The Crimson Tide’s lead ballooned to as many 31 points as the 4-seed controlled the game after a bit of a rocky start.

Alabama’s guards had a lot to do with that, as three seniors had strong performances to open the NCAA Tournament. The team was led by All-SEC selection Mark Sears, who tallied 30 points and became the fifth Crimson Tide player to score 30 or more in March Madness. He also passed Brandon Miller’s 696 points for the second-most in a single season.

Sears currently has 706 points during UA’s 2023-24 campaign, which is 41 less than the record set by Reggie King in 1978-79. Sears also recorded his 23rd 20-point contest of his senior year, matching King’s school record for most 20-point games in a single season.

He was joined in double figures by Latrell Wrightsell Jr., who had 17 points and was 5-of-6 from three, and Aaron Estrada (13 points) as the whole team shot 60 percent from the floor.

“They say you win games in March with guard play. I think that’s true,” said Alabama head coach Nate Oats. “These guys here combined for 60 points. It’s pretty good play out here your guards. Aaron and Mark had 13 assists to two turnovers, and Trelly and Mark combined 8-12 from three, which is shooting it pretty well. So I thought our guards played well.”

Alabama shot 57 percent (13-of-23) from beyond the arc but didn’t get as many shots up as its opponent (10-of-33). There were only four games this year where the Tide attempted less than 23 threes. But Alabama proved that the belief that it needs to take and make a bunch of threes isn’t the end-all, be-all to the team’s success in Oats’ high-powered system.

The Crimson Tide (22-11) was also effective in other ways, like finishing with a sizeable edge in fastbreak points (25-10) and with six more points in the paint than Charleston (46-40).

“I thought we were able to get to the rim a lot and get out in transition,” Oats said. “Teams think we really want to shoot 40 threes. We’ll take whatever they give you. We’re going to spread you out, and if they want to take us off the 3-point line and open up the lane for us – we scored 46 points in the paint. So we can score in the paint or score from three, depending upon what you want to take away.”

Alabama will now wait to learn its second-round foet, which will be decided tonight when the Saint Mary’s-Grand Canyon game ends. The Round of 32 matchup is set for March 24.

Alabama games with 100 or more points

Nov. 6 – Morehead State – 105-73
Nov. 10 – Indiana State – 102-80
Nov. 14 – South Alabama – 102-46
Dec. 23 – Eastern Kentucky – 111-67
Dec. 30 – Liberty – 101-56
Jan. 27 – LSU – 109-88
Feb. 10 – LSU – 109-92
Feb. 17 – Texas A&M – 100-75
Feb. 28 – Ole Miss – 103-88
March 22 – Charleston – 109-96

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