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Alabama holds off Robert Morris in first round, advances in NCAA Tournament
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Alabama had to work for it, but the Crimson Tide are moving on to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
With 22 points and 10 assists from Mark Sears, 2-seed Alabama beat 15-seed Robert Morris 90-80 inside Rocket Arena in Cleveland on Friday. The win was Alabama’s third consecutive first-round victory under coach Nate Oats.
The Crimson Tide led Robert Morris for 39 minutes and 16 seconds on Friday. They were up by as many as 10 points in the first half and stretched the lead to as large as 12 in the second half. But Robert Morris never quite went away.
The Colonials trailed by just 4 points at the halftime break. With 7 minutes to play, Alabama trailed by 1.
When Grant Nelson came into the game for the final 8 minutes, everyone could sense a level of urgency from the Tide. It was clear that Oats wanted to get out of the first round without playing his injured forward, who was said to be available but did not enter the game in the first half. With Alabama locked in a tight affair going into the closing stretch, though, Nelson entered for the first time.
His dunk with 6:40 to play put Alabama back on top and ignited a 15-3 run. Sears was instrumental in that spurt, scoring 5 straight points.
Nelson closed with 5 points, 3 boards, and a steal in just 7 minutes of action. Sears led the way with 22, scoring 19 of those in the second half while drilling 10 of his final 11 free throws.
Nelson’s presence was big. Literally. Prior to his insertion into the game, Alabama was getting beat inside. The Colonials scored 50 paint points and beat the Tide on the boards, 39-37. They had 16 offensive rebounds that led to 15 second-chance points.
Alabama shot 59% from the field and took 11 more free throw attempts, but the Tide gave up too many extra possessions between the turnovers (12) and struggles on the glass.
If there’s a positive to take away from the game, it’s that Alabama got whatever it wanted inside even without Nelson for most of the afternoon. Clifford Omoruyi finished with 17 points on a perfect 8-for-8 shooting. Mouhamed Dioubate had 18 points and 10 boards on 8-for-10 shooting. Robert Morris had no answer for Alabama’s screen-and-roll game, and the Tide frequently got points from lobs to the bigs near the rim.
Alabama will face either 7-seed Saint Mary’s or 10-seed Vanderbilt on Sunday. The Crimson Tide (26-8) faced Vandy only once in the regular season, winning at home 103-87 on Jan. 21. Oats is 3-0 in the Round of 32 as Alabama’s head coach.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
