In-N-Out: Alabama Basketball's NCAA Tournament Road Ended Early by Notre Dame
SAN DIEGO — Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats stressed three important things that his Crimson Tide needed to improve on heading into the NCAA Tournament.
Chiefly among those three items was reducing turnovers. Second, it was making free throws. Third and finally was completing layups.
Alabama showed marginal improvement in all three of those criteria on Friday afternoon at Viejas Arena against Notre Dame in the opening round of March Madness, falling to the Fighting Irish 78-64 and bringing the Crimson Tide's season to an end.
"Tough loss," Oats said after the game. "I mean, gotta give Notre Dame a lot of credit to play in a play-in game and go double overtime, fly in here as late as they did, play with one-day rest and give the energy they got. It shows they've got some veteran, mature guys that can execute a game plan off a day prep."
It was a slow start for both Alabama and Notre Dame to start the game. After 5:30 had ticked off of the clock, the game was tied at 6. However, at the 16:31 mark, the Crimson Tide's strategy was forced to change when one of its top players was injured.
At just under three-and-a-half minutes into the game, Crimson Tide junior guard Jahvon Quinerly injured his left knee while driving to the basket. Oats rushed out onto the court with trainer Clarke Holter, and after struggling on the floor in pain, Quinerly was eventually helped off of the court by assistant coach Bryan Hodgson and Holter.
Quinerly did not return to the game, but did return to watch the team from the tunnel while standing with crutches and a brace on his left leg.
"I feel for Jahvon," Oats said. "Don't know exactly what it is, but some significant knee injury. I thought he was ready to play. I thought he'd had a great few weeks of practice. AT voluntary shooting deal last night, he was the only guy that went. Shot it really well.
"I thought he was ready to play, and three minutes into the game he gets the knee injury, can't play the rest of the game. Life happens. Adversity hits and you've got to face it."
With Quinerly out, Oats turned to freshman guard JD Davison, who put forth an admiral effort with five points, four assists and two steals in the game's first 20 minutes.
However, Quinerly's effort on perimeter defense was missed almost immediately. After the injury, Notre Dame's offense saw a sharp uptick, including shooting six-of-eight from 3-point territory and 59 percent from the floor.
Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide shot relatively well,, but it wasn't enough to keep up with the Fighting Irish. In total, Alabama shot 44 percent from the floor and 45 percent from beyond the arc.
At halftime, Alabama trailed Notre Dame 41-36.
Notre Dame drained a three to start the second half, but six unanswered points by Davison cut the Fighting Irish's lead down to two. However, Notre Dame guard Cormac Ryan hit his fifth three of the game to give himself 21 points and increase the Fighting Irish's lead to 5 at the under-16 media timeout.
Ryan continued to be automatic from beyond the arc. Just after Alabama forward Noah Gurley had quieted the Notre Dame crowd with a dunk, Ryan hit his sixth 3-pointer of the game to bring the Fighting Irish fans back on their feet. Alabama responded with a 3 from guard Jaden Shackelford, but the margin was still 11 points in favor of Notre Dame with 11:40 left to play.
A unopposed dunk by Blake Wesley brought the lead back to 10 at the 10:42 mark.
Alabama fought to decrease the margin, but was heavily hindered in the paint by freshman center Charles' Bediako's foul trouble. At the final media timeout, the Fighting Irish still maintained a 10-point lead. With Quinerly gone and Oats being forced to use Bediako sparingly, Alabama seemed to grow tired.
Senior guard Keon Ellis said that he wasn't tired, but the evidence on the court for his teammates proved otherwise.
"I felt fine, honestly," Ellis said. "I wasn't like all the way tired to the point where I couldn't, I needed a breather. Just a couple of bang-bang plays where your body is hurting a little bit. But I wasn't tired to where I needed a break.
"It's March, so you've got to expect unexpected. He went down. And I just knew — a situation like that may come up. So I was ready for it."
The Crimson Tide was unable to overcome the deficit even with a late technical foul called on Oats, and Notre Dame prevailed and advanced.
Regarding Oats' list of things to improve for March Madness, Alabama finished the game having turned the basketball over 14 times, a slight improvement. From the free-throw line, the Crimson Tide shot 4-of-7, while in layups it made just 11-of-22. All were marginal improvements, but not a significant enough difference to overcome the injury to Quinerly.
Alabama finished the game with four shooters in double-digits, led by Ellis with 16. Shackelford recorded 13 points, followed by Davison with 11 and Juwan Gary with 10.
Davison was one assist shy of a double-double with nine, leading the team in the category. Ellis finished with the team-lead in rebounds, also with nine.
Ryan finished the game with a team-leading 29 points for Notre Dame, including seven made 3-pointers out of nine shots. Couple that with 18 points from Wesley, and the Fighting Irish's offense was out in force.
With the loss, Alabama basketball's season is over. The Crimson Tide conclude its year with a 19-14 overall record. Meanwhile, Notre Dame will advance to take on 3-seed Texas Tech on Sunday in the Second Round.
"We couldn't make shots," Oats said. "They made shots. [...] They were the better team today and gotta give them a lot of credit."
Gallery: Alabama Basketball vs Notre Dame, 2022 NCAA Tournament
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