LOS ANGELES — For an entire college basketball season, Alabama’s offense provided the punch and its defense the punch lines. And now the better of the two has the Crimson Tide, a victory in their first Final Four appearance.
A thrilling romp of an 89-87 loss to No. 1 seed North Carolina on Thursday night featured trademark offensive pop, but also mixed with a fairly resolute defensive effort that limited the Tar Heels shot an abysmal 25.6 percent from the field in the second half. .
“We’ve been criticized all year for our defense, and probably rightly so,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “Our defense showed up in the second half.”
Alabama’s stars ultimately won the evening. Forward Grant Nelson bounced back from a miserable stretch in the first and second rounds in Spokane, Washington, to score 24 points. “Grant arrived,” Oats said. While guards Rylan Griffen and Aaron Estrada added 19 points each, it was All-SEC guard Mark Sears (18 points) who had the ball in his hands to make the play that gave Alabama the lead for good.
After North Carolina’s Jae’Lyn Withers took and missed an ill-advised 3-pointer with a minute left and a point lead, Sears went through several ball screens on the other end and inexplicably found Nelson open at the edge, where Nelson tipped. in a layup while being fouled, and the ensuing three-point play gave the Crimson Tide an 87-85 lead.
Then the longest night of RJ Davis’ basketball life grew longer. The senior All-American from North Carolina was nothing short of brutal overall – 4 of 20 shooting from the floor, 0 of 9 from 3-point range, the first time all season he hadn’t made a 3 in a game — and yet Tar Heels coach Hubert Davis put the game and the season in the senior guard’s hands after a timeout.
RJ Davis’ first off-balance shot was knocked out of bounds by Nelson. The sophomore didn’t catch any part of the rim, leading to a shot clock violation with 8.6 seconds remaining. Nelson hit two free throws at the other end to build a four-point lead. After North Carolina’s Armando Bacot scored with less than two seconds on the clock, Alabama was able to get within Nelson, who missed two free throws with 0.9 seconds left – but then put away a Desperate heave by the Tar Heels’ Harrison Ingram as time expired. .
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Alabama wins thriller against North Carolina to reach first Elite Eight in 20 years