BYU gives up NCAA Tournament-record 25 3s in loss to Alabama

NEWARK, N.J. — With two of the top 10 offenses in the country by KenPom's predictive metrics, BYU and Alabama were expected to showcase fireworks in their Sweet 16 matchup at the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

The Tide kept up their end of the bargain.

Mark Sears poured in 34 points, eight assists, three rebounds and three steals as the Crimson Tide rolled by the Cougars 113-88 at the Prudential Center.

Sears' 10 3-pointers are tied for the second-most all-time in an NCAA Tournament game, and the most since Purdue's Carsen Edwards had 10 in 2019.

Aden Holloway added 24 points for Alabama (28-8), which converted 25-of-51 3-pointers to set a record for made threes in an NCAA Tournament game.

"We weren't able to adjust," BYU coach Kevin Young said. "They lead all of power conferences in points in the paint. And you can get paralyzed by the three ... and live at the rim. I thought we did a good job of that; they only have 16 points in the paint, and average 40.

"Sears got going where we went under some screens early — and granted, they were like 35-foot bombs. But you've got to adjust. So give him credit, first of all. And then we were trying to show a bit too much to the crowd, and they made us pay. Then they got going. We could've done a lot of things better ... but that was an incredible performance by them, and we didn't do enough to stop it."

Richie Saunders led BYU (26-8) with 25 points and six rebounds, and Egor Demin supplied 15 points and seven assists.

Keba Keita had 13 points, six assists, a block and a steal for the Cougars, who got 10 points and three steals from Trevin Knell in the lopsided loss.

But Chris Youngblood scored 19 points for Alabama to advance to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season.

Both teams shot close to 60% from the field early, with Alabama connecting on 7-of-14 3-pointers and jumping out to a 32-26 advantage on Grant Nelson's breakaway dunk with 9:16 left in the half.

Led by 17 points and five assists from Sears on 5-of-7 3-point shooting, the Tide were unconscious from deep in pouring in 12 3-pointers en route to a 51-40 halftime lead.

BYU tried to keep pace in the paint, outscoring Alabama 28-8 inside, including a combined 15 from Keita and Fousseyni Traore.

But the Cougars converted just 1-of-13 triples before the break — a lone, singular 3-pointer by Knell, who missed time in the first half after a collision that left him with a bloodied nose — for a team led by Saunders' 12 points and four rebounds.

"When they shoot, they shoot tough shots," Saunders said. "It's just hard defend when they're hitting everything like that in that offense."

The Tide stretched the lead as high as 97-76 as Sears hit his ninth 3-pointer, just two off Jeff Fryer's record for 3-pointers in an NCAA Tournament game that the former LMU star recorded March 18, 1990.

There were still seven minutes remaining — and Sears used all of them, converting 10-of-16 triples before exiting for the final time with just over four minutes remaining to tie an Alabama single-game record.

"That was a fun game, if you like offense," Alabama coach Nate Oats said. "That was fun for the fans, I'm sure, at least for the Alabama fans."

For the BYU fans, maybe not so much.

In the Cougars' first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2011, the Cougars were out-shot 25-6 from 3-point range. The Tide took made 25-of-35 shots from the perimeter — and took 51-of-66, for that matter.

Put another way: If Alabama had not made a single shot from 2-point range, the Tide would've won 93-88.

"It was a perfect storm for them," Young said. "They're more dynamic than we are clearly, but I know Nate and their staff, and I think we share a lot of similar philosophies. So I think we tried to use what teams do against us defensively and have that in mind."

BYU tried to take away the paint, and ended up out 50-16 inside. That the Tide only took 15 shots from inside the arc might be considered for a success.

Except for the way Alabama "went bananas from three," Young said.

"But that's a really good basketball team," he added. "I mean, it was an all-time night for them. It felt like there was nothing we could do at times. But just proud of the way our guys kept staying with it. We had our chances despite the incredible shot making."

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