Alabama wins 94-79 over UNC in the ACC/SEC Challenge – The Crimson White

Alabama center Clifford Omoruyi (#11) throws the ball against UNC on Wednesday, December 4, 2024, at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, NC.

No. 10 Alabama defeated the No. 20 North Carolina Tar Heels in Chapel Hill on Wednesday in the ACC/SEC Challenge, 94-79, with six players scoring in double figures.

“I think our guys showed a lot of toughness and resiliency,” head coach Nate Oats said. “We had a tough loss to Oregon and we could have easily turned that loss into two. But I thought they got it right. I thought they were ready to play.”

It took Alabama a few minutes to adjust to the hostile atmosphere as the team shot just 1/6 early in the game. The Crimson Tide began to catch fire with under 12 minutes left in the media timeout, leading 21-14 and making 7/11 field goals, including three 3-pointers.

Over the next four minutes, Alabama outscored the Tar Heels 10-4, extending the lead to 31-18 eight minutes before halftime.

North Carolina didn’t take this lightly and went on a 7-0 run of its own with six minutes to play to bring the score to 31-25.

“Most of the time we took care of the ball, but we weren’t doing well with it against the press and toward the end of the first half,” Oats said.

The energy shifted back to the Crimson Tide’s side as center Clifford Omoruyi made a booming throw immerse yourself five minutes before the end of the half to give his team momentum.

Big slam by Clifford Omoruyi

Bama leads the under-4 by 10 points pic.twitter.com/ErAq8vnSo0

— SEC Hoops World (@SEC_Wrld) December 5, 2024

“I thought our bigs did a good job of getting vertical at the rim,” Oats said.

Alabama took a 43-34 halftime lead and made five of its last seven shots. The key to the first frame was taking advantage of the Tar Heels’ nine turnovers. Six of the team’s points in the first half came from turnovers.

The Crimson Tide came out of the locker room hot, going on a 14-10 run to start the second half, making 5 of 9 shots in the first 5 minutes and taking a 57-44 lead.

Alabama continued to capitalize on the Tar Heels’ mistakes and extended its lead to 15 with 12 minutes left. The 65-50 score was heavily influenced by North Carolina’s 11.8% shooting percentage from behind the arc to that point.

The Tar Heels began to gain some life, forcing several Alabama turnovers and cutting the score to 74-64 with seven minutes to play.

From then until the timeout was under 4:00, North Carolina couldn’t muster enough momentum to make an even bigger run. The Crimson Tide continued to hold off the Tar Heels, leading 82-69.

Ultimately, in one of the loudest atmospheres in college basketball, Alabama cruised to a 94-79 victory, improving its record to 7-2.

“The half-court spacing was significantly better,” Oats said. “I thought we took better shots. We were able to hit 12 3s. We would still like to get more of it, but we were able to handle the ball better and make some threes.”

Guard Mark Sears led the Crimson Tide in scoring, dropping 20 points on 7/14 shooting from the field. He added seven assists and two rebounds.

Guards Labaron Philon and Aden Holloway each scored 15 points. All of Holloway’s points came from behind the arc as he scored 5/10 from distance. This was different than Philon, who scored all of his points in the paint.

“He’s earned the right to play well,” Oats said of Philon. “He goes into some of these games with no fear, and he expresses it on both ends of the floor. He played really well for us in big games.”

Omoruyi and forward Grant Nelson had solid performances, scoring 11 and 10 points respectively. Nelson finished the game with the most rebounds of any player on either team, 9.

Guard Houston Mallette saw his first appearance of the season in place of Injured Latrell Wrightsell Jr. He played nine minutes and scored 6 points on 2/2 shooting from 3.

“Houston was selfless enough to take off his red shirt,” Oats said. “He was plus-12 in nine minutes, hit two 3s and made defensive plays.”

The Crimson Tide return to Coleman Coliseum for a matchup against Creighton on December 14th at 7:30 p.m. CT. The game will be streamed on SEC Network.