Cleveland, OH
No. 2 Alabama Basketball Squashes Saint Mary’s to Secure Spot in Sweet 16
CLEVELAND–– Alabama basketball is rolling into the Sweet 16 for the third straight season under Nate Oats.
The 2-seed Crimson Tide beat 7-seed Saint Mary’s 80-66 inside Rocket Arena in Cleveland on Saturday night behind a balanced scoring effort and a couple highlight-reel dunks.
“I thought we had great leadership tonight, showed a lot of toughness,” Oats said after the game. “We said the tougher team is going to win this one, and that’s one of the tougher teams in the country. Our guys really stepped up and met the challenge there tonight.”
Saint Mary’s came into the game as one of the slowest-playing teams in the country and had not allowed a team to score 80 or more points in a game since 2022.
Alabama’s defense was stifling in the first half. Rebounding was an emphasis from Oats coming into the game, and the Tide dominated on the boards in the first half. Saint Mary’s clawed its way back in the second half in both categories, but the Crimson Tide was too much to overcome.
The first 10 minutes of the game were going exactly the way Saint Mary’s wants to play with the teams tied at 13-13 at the under-12 media timeout. Alabama forward Grant Nelson hit a 3-pointer out of the timeout, and that seemed to unlock the Crimson Tide offense.
Alabama held Saint Mary’s without a field goal for over five minutes and was able to build up a double-digit lead and headed into halftime up 42-29. Because of foul trouble, Mark Sears only played 11 minutes in the first half. Other Crimson Tide players were able to step up and pick up some of his normal workload.
The Gaels showed some fight in the second half and would never let the Tide fully pull away, but every time Alabama needed an answer, it got one. The game was never truly in doubt. Saint Mary’s only led for 30 seconds total in the game.
Six different Crimson Tide players finished in double figures led by Chris Youngblood with 13. Clifford Omoruyi had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, including this reverse dunk that got the Crimson Tide crowd on its feet.
CLIFF OMORUYI FINISHES OFF THE LOB 🤯#MarchMadness @AlabamaMBB pic.twitter.com/wRDVVaRloX
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 23, 2025
“That’s what we’re known for really is how deep our team is and how fast we play,” Alabama forward Derrion Reid said.
Alabama will face 6-seed BYU in the Sweet 16 in Newark, New Jersey on Thursday. The tipoff time will be announced later tonight.
“We’re going to have to really lock in and coaches are going to have to really do a good job getting our guys ready and then our guys are going to have to execute the plan is whatever we decide to put in and we’re going to have to make adjustments to it because I’m sure he’ll make adjustments,” Oats said about facing BYU. “Yeah, I’m looking forward to playing in the Sweet 16.”
Cleveland, OH
Woman killed, several children injured in Ohio Turnpike crash in Lorain County
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – A 28-year-old woman is dead, and three children are hospitalized following a one-car rollover accident in Elyria Township in the eastbound lanes of the Ohio Turnpike.
The crash happened around 11:54 a.m. at milepost 146.3.
During the investigation of the crash OSHP learned that the crash happened when the Toyota RAV4, driven by Najalee N. Rivera, drove off the right side of the road, struck a guardrail, and overturned.
The vehicle was also occupied by three children. A 7-year-old boy, a 8-year-old girl, and 4-year-old girl all from Lorain, they all suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were transported by LifeCare Ambulance to University Elyria Hospital.
Rivera was not wearing a safety belt at the time of the crash, according to OSHP.
Two of the lanes were reopened about 4:15 p.m., according to a social media post from the Ohio Turnpike.
Check back with 19 News for the latest on this story.
Copyright 2026 WOIO. All rights reserved.
Cleveland, OH
LOOK: Remembering the Cavs championship win, victory parade 10 years later
CLEVELAND (WJW) — Ten years ago, Cleveland experienced one of the most unforgettable moments in the city’s history.
The Cavaliers became the first-ever team to overcome a 3-1 deficit to win a championship. By winning the 2016 NBA Finals, they also ended a 52-year championship drought for Cleveland.
Mr. Cavalier, Austin Carr, said he still relishes that moment 10 years later.
“The odds we overcame to win that championship,” he said. “Not only did we have to win three straight games, but we also had to have the right things happen at the right moment in order to win it. And that just tells me how difficult it is … with ‘The Shot’, ‘The Block’, and the defensive move. All those. It was just meant to be.”
The victory over the Golden State Warriors catapulted LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, J.R. Smith and the rest of the crew into essential Northeast Ohio sainthood.
When Akron’s own James screamed the now-famous phrase, “Cleveland, this is for you!” following the game, a whole legion of Cleveland fans around the country wept and cheered along with him.

When Smith refused to put a shirt on for what seemed like a whole summer in honor of the win, it felt right and proper.
Whenever the long-since traded Irving comes back to town, he’s remembered for his important 3-pointer at the end of Game 7 and not the way he left the team.
And the city made history again just a few days later, when more than 1.3 million people flooded downtown Cleveland for the championship parade. According to the Cavs, it remains the largest NBA championship parade ever.
The current Cavaliers (now in their Donovan Mitchell era) haven’t been back to the NBA Finals. They reached the conference finals this past spring for the first time since 2018. But a finals appearance has still eluded the wine and gold.
Cleveland, OH
Violent crime crackdown leads to 11 felony arrests and gets eight guns off Cleveland’s streets
CLEVELAND, OH — Cleveland police and Gov. Mike DeWine’s office touted the results of a violent crime reduction operation that led to 11 arrests and took eight illegally possessed guns off the city’s streets Wednesday.
“We got bad people off the street, and we’ll continue to get bad people off the street,” said Cleveland Police Sgt. Wilfredo Diaz.
The operation was a collaboration between police, Ohio State Highway Patrol, Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s deputies, U.S. Marshals Service and the Ohio Investigative Unit.
Diaz said it focused on both traffic enforcement and executing search warrants and arrest warrants targeting suspected criminals identified through ongoing investigations.
“[We] use intelligence-led policing to really saturate specific areas where we believe there’s an influx of crime, violent crime in particular,” said Diaz.
The numbers were music to the ears of Councilman Mike Polensek.
“We want this presence,” said Polensek, who chairs the council’s Safety Committee. “We want this presence in our neighborhoods. You’ve got to lay the law down. Our residents want this to take place.”
Polensek previously called on Mayor Justin Bibb to ask for help from the state and county to address what he called ridiculous levels of violence in the city.
Polensek cited numbers showing Cleveland police have lost hundreds of officers over the last two decades.
‘If we’re going to reclaim our streets, that’s what it’s going to be, all hands on deck,” said Polensek.
Diaz said more of the special details are already planned, but he would not reveal specific details.
He did offer this warning to the criminals terrorizing the city.
“If there are any bad actors that watch Channel 5, we want this message to get out,” said Diaz, “that we didn’t get you this time, we’re going to get you next time.”
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