Alabama basketball loses controversial heartbreaker to Oregon

With money on the line, the ninth-place Alabama Crimson Tide lost 83-81 to the Oregon Ducks in the final of the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. The Ducks collected the $1.5 million in zero, while the Tide collected the money for second place. The Tide allowed a very winning play, with a little help from our friends in stripes. A chase down block by Jarin Stevenson was called the goalkeeper and somehow stopped on review to help Oregon win the game and the tournament.

The Tide fell victim to careless turnovers and poor shooting, as well as an inability to maintain a late lead. Nonetheless, Bama was still in it until the final siren sounded a split second early, when Bama made a game-winning basket.

Coach Nate Oats stuck with the starting lineup of Mark Sears, Latrell Wrightsell, Jr., LaBaron Philon, Grant Nelson and Clifford Omruyi. The Tide got off to a good start as Wrightsell hit an early three-pointer and two free throws for a quick 5-0 lead. Sears hit a three-pointer at 16:20 that turned out to be his only one of the game, and the Tide appeared to be in control with a 12-6 lead. Aidan Sherrell came in, missed a couple of threes and turned the ball over in his few minutes of playing time. Despite playing like the MVP of the entire tournament, Mouhamed Dioubate was the last man off the bench for Bama.

Philon had a fantastic start to the game after playing poorly in the first two contests of the tournament. A pair of three-pointers, a free throw and a layup gave the freshman nine quick points. Unforced errors became an issue as the Tide turned the ball over enough to give the Ducks a 24-23 lead with 8:38 left in the half. After a 10-2 run at Oregon, Bama trailed 28-25. The run was so bad that Oats even had to take one of his precious timeouts that he loves to hold on to. Three-pointers from Wrightsell and Aden Holloway and layups from Sears and Philon helped the Tide respond with a 12-0 run, but the Ducks came right back with a 7-0 run of their own to tie the score at 39-39 at halftime .

Bama shot 14-30, or 47%, in the half, with 2-9 from distance and 3-5 at the free throw line. The Tide had 21 rebounds, 12 assists, one steal, two blocks and nine big turnovers. Philon led the way with 11 points, three rebounds and two assists. Wrightsell scored 10 points and Sears added seven.

Oregon shot 42% from the field, including 22% from three, and hit 60% of its shots at the line. The Ducks grabbed 15 rebounds and had 13 assists. three thefts. two blocks and only one turnover. Keeshawn Barthelemy and Nate Bittle led the way with 10 points each.

The Tide stuck with the same starters in the second half. Oregon scored right after halftime to take the lead before Bama suffered a tough loss as Wrightsell was sidelined with a potentially season-ending injury. We’ll wait for the MRI before burying the young man, but it didn’t look good. The Ducks went on a 15-5 run to give themselves a 10-point lead over the Tide.

Stevenson heated up and shot three long throws in a row from behind the arc. Holloway scored once and Nelson and Dioubate each scored a pair, giving the Tide a 74-69 lead with 4:14 to play. The Ducks went on another run, fueled by Bama turnovers, and tied the game at 75-75 with 2:09 left.

That’s where the controversy began. Nelson played the ball at the top of the key and was blocked by Oregon, but Stevenson channeled his inner LeBron James and followed up the play for what appeared to be a nice, clean block. The referee immediately whistled for a goal and ended the game. While the review was underway, former Duke All American Grant Hill, who served as an analyst for the broadcast, almost guaranteed that the call would be overturned since it was clearly a clean block. After a few minutes the crew returned with the call maintained and the Tide lost two minutes.

With 58 seconds left, the Tide missed threes from Sears and Stevenson. Oregon extended the lead to 81-75 with 31 seconds left. Holloway drilled a long three-pointer to cut the lead to three. Sears stole the pass and was fouled going up, but only managed 1-2 at the line. On the missed shot, Dioubate grabbed the rebound and was fouled attempting a shot. Little Mo calmly made both freebies and tied the game at 81-81 with 18 seconds left.

With the shot clock turned off, the Ducks drove down the lane and made a layup that was challenged by three Tide defenders. After the fall, however, no one was able to block, and a subsequent Oregon dunk by Nate Bittle gave the Boys in Green an 83-81 lead with 4.4 seconds left. Sears took the ball the length of the field and probably should have put it up, but decided to pass inside to Nelson. When Nelson caught the ball, collected himself and went upfield, time was up. After a review, the decision was upheld, and unfortunately the Tide had missed tying the game by a split second.

Bama finished 27-64 for 42% from the field, 12-38 for 32% from three and 15-20 for 75% from the charity stripe. The Tide had 44 rebounds, 2 assists, six steals, four blocks and 15 turnovers. Philon leads the way with 15 points, seven rebounds, two assists and one steal. Sears reached double figures with 11 on 3-14 shooting – 1-11 on three-pointers – and added four rebounds, five assists, three steals and three turnovers. Holloway added 11 points, five assists and five rebounds. Despite missing most of the second half, Wrightsell was in double figures with 10 points. Nelson had seven points, seven rebounds and six assists with a variety of deft passes. The big man also had three of the team’s turnovers.

Oregon shot 44% from the field at 29-66, 5-17 from distance and made 20-25 free throws. The Ducks had 39 rebounds, 19 assists, six steals, three blocks and eight turnovers. Barthelemy led the team with 22 points off the bench. The hero Battle scored 19 points and added nine rebounds and three assists.

This game was there for the taking. Don’t turn the ball over the goal – most were unforced errors – and you win the game away. Sears and Holloway combined to shoot 4-21 from behind the three-point line, while everyone else shot a combined 8-17. Sears was particularly off at 1:11. The loss of Wrightsell was a big loss for the Tide in this game. Seeing Stevenson find his range will be huge for the team. Bama will need more from the centre-back duo of Nelson and Omoruyi in the future.

Overall a good week for Bama. Beating Houston and Rutgers were great victories. The team has shown that it can win games even if it doesn’t play great. It would be nice to win and play great, and hopefully that will happen.

The tough schedule continues next week when the Tide travels to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels. The game takes place on December 4th at 6:15 p.m. CT and can be seen on ESPN. Then finally, on December 14th, the Tide returns home for the first time since November 11th to play Creighton.

Roll Tide

Blue collar basketball