Despite a scoreless outing from preseason SEC player of the year Mark Sears, the Alabama Crimson Tide defeated No. 25 Illinois 100-87 at the C.M. Newton Classic at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, on Wednesday.
Alabama jumped out to a 14-point lead in the first half after forward Grant Nelson drained three straight triples.
Nelson ended the game with 23 points on 4/9 shooting from beyond the arc and eight rebounds. His teammate, guard Labaron Philon, mentioned that an emphasis was placed on getting Nelson the ball on the perimeter frequently, noting that Illinois’ play style lent itself to leaving the forward wide open from long range.
“We told him, you get an open look, you shoot it,” Philon said of Nelson. “We don’t care. We’ll crash the glass if you miss and try to go to the boards, but he wasn’t missing tonight. So that was very good.”
Philon put together a solid performance, scoring 16 points on 7/13 shooting. He also contributed a team-high nine assists, which was key to the Crimson Tide’s success down the stretch.
“[We have] guys putting their trust in me, telling me where to be at the right times, and what plays to make at the right times. Don’t try to be a hero,” he said. “I just try to go out and make the right play every possession.”
Sears was surprisingly absent from the score sheet. The returning leader shot 0/5 from the field and subbed himself out in the last 10 minutes of the second half of the game due to poor shooting. Head coach Nate Oats said that Sears was a good leader for making the call to take himself out, noting that he was a vocal team player on the bench.
“He was struggling. There’s a lot of pressure on him being an in-state kid who came back, and he was the preseason player of the year,” Oats said. “He’s trying to do well but teams are gearing their defense towards him. He had some good looks that just didn’t go.”
Picking up the slack was the Crimson Tide’s depth on the bench. Players coming off of the bench scored 39 points, and chief among these players was guard Aden Holloway, who scored 18 points on 7/10 shooting from the field and 3/4 from the 3-point line.
“Holloway shooting it like he did helps a lot,” Oats said. “We’re deep. Everyone knew we were deep, and we needed the bench tonight.”
Alabama maintained its lead throughout the game and, other than a few short Illinois scoring runs, was able to stay pretty distant from the Fighting Illini on the scoreboard.
The Crimson Tide will return to action on Tuesday at 7 p.m. CT to take on No. 7 Houston at the Players Era Tournament at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
