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.

“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.”