Three Takeaways From Alabama's Worrisome Win Over North Dakota

The Crimson Tide outlasted North Dakota in a game that was far too close for comfort.

Alabama guard Chris Youngblood (8) shoots a three against North Dakota at Betty Engelstad Sioux Center in Grand Forks, ND on Wednesday, Dec 18, 2024. | Photo by Crimson Tide Photos / UA Athletics

No. 6 Alabama men's basketball narrowly escaped North Dakota with a 97-90 road win on Wednesday evening.

The Crimson Tide struggled on both sides of the ball in the first half, but an offensive awakening in the second period was enough to take a lead late and maintain it until the final buzzer against a team that came into the game with a 4-8 record that plays in a mid-major conference.

There's so much to dissect from this matchup at Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Here are three takeaways:

Alabama Duo Turned Back the Clock

It seems like every contest there's been a different combination of "players of the game" and that shows Alabama's search for depth in recruits and transfers has paid off thus far. However, Wednesday night's biggest standouts were Preseason All-American point guard Mark Sears and Preseason All-SEC Second Team forward Grant Nelson––the duo that led the Crimson Tide to its first-ever Final Four appearance last season.

Sears got off to a slow start this season but his numbers have started to pick up and look more consistent. Wednesday night only furthered that as his 23 points tied with Nelson for the team lead, as Sears shot 7-of-14 from the floor, including a 3-of-7 clip from behind the arc, and went 6-of-8 from the free-throw line. Additionally, he logged a team-high five assists and tied with guard Labaron Philon with two steals in 36 minutes of action.

Sears played a pivotal role in contributing to the catch-up and then the maintain-the-lead games in the second half, as 15 of his 23 points came in the latter 20 minutes of the night. That said, seven of those 15 second-half points came in the final 3 1/2 minutes.

While the ride to the home of the Fighting Hawks was over 1,300 miles away, it's less than 100 miles from Nelson's hometown of Devils Lake. Nelson detailed during Tuesday's press conference how excited he was to return to North Dakota and that he was given a separate web link from the rest of the team to invite significantly more family and friends than usual.

The trip seemed to be worth it for Nelson as in addition to reuniting with members of his home state, he tied with Sears for the team-lead in points at halftime with eight. However, like the rest of the Crimson Tide's offense, Nelson shined in the second half and finished the game with 23 points, with 10 rebounds, three blocks and two assists. His point total tied for a season-high, and his rebound and block numbers each tied for his second-best performance.

"I just felt so much love," Nelson said during the postgame press conference. "It's great to play in front of these people who have supported me and I'm just super grateful for this experience, for the coaching staff scheduling this game and just giving these guys a show tonight."

Like Sears, some of these numbers stem from clutch time as Nelson scored four points and secured three rebounds in the game's final 90 seconds to ensure he left his home state with a win. He was also named tonight's Hard Hat winner for scoring the most blue-collar points, which measures his all-around hustle.

"I thought Grant was very good for most of the game, I thought he came ready to play," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said during the postgame press conference. "He had the emphatic dunk in the first half, thought he made some big blocks, had some tough rebounds, made his free throws, got to the rim and finished pretty well. He's a steadying influence."

Couldn't Stop the Eagle

"He's good. He's a good shooter, can get to the rim and can get to the free throw line. He's good. They know he's good, and they give him the ball in all kinds of different ways. The message is we're not going under ball screens. If we go under and he hits a three, it's gonna be an issue. We may not just guard with Sears and Labaron, we may put some size on him, like we've done the past, to try to make things a little bit more difficult for him."

This was the response Oats gave during Tuesday's press conference when asked about defending North Dakota guard Treysen Eaglestaff, who came into this game leading the Summit League in scoring average and didn't have a single night with under 12 points this season.

Simply put, the Crimson Tide had no answers for Eaglestaff as he dropped 40 points on 15-of-30 from the field, including an 8-of-18 clip from downtown. Alabama tried everything to stop him, but there were no answers from start to finish.

"I've known [Eaglestaff] for a while, I played him when he was here and I was at North Dakota State," Nelson said during the postgame press conference. "I knew he was a great player and our scouting report was pretty much around him...He'll make a lot of money playing basketball."

North Dakota led for nearly 21 minutes of the night while the Crimson Tide held the lead for a little over 16 minutes. Eaglestaff was the main factor in maintaining and building the lead for the Fighting Hawks, but was also they key piece in making sure the No. 6-ranked team in the nation didn't pull away from his then-4-8 squad until the final seconds.

“That was the best individual performance anyone had on us all year, easily,” Oats said during the postgame press conference.

The Second Half Awakening

Basketball is a game that often revolves around momentum, which results in swings, stretches and even droughts. Two massive momentum eliminators are turning the ball over missing open shots from deep. Both of these were in full effect for the Crimson Tide in the first half against the Fighting Hawks.

Alabama turned the ball over on the first possession of the game and that became a theme in the opening 20 minutes as the Crimson Tide committed 13 turnovers in that span. Thirteen against a team that came into the game with a 4-8 record that plays in a mid-major conference.

On the possessions that Alabama didn't give the ball away, the Tide could not convert from deep early. It took a little over eight minutes before one went through the bottom of the net and Alabama was 0-for-8 before that moment.

Nelson said that Oats and his assistants were yelling at the team a lot in the halftime locker room because of these momentum eliminators, but that clearly worked as the Crimson Tide started to hit from deep and hold onto the ball in the second half.

The winner of the turnover battle often comes out as the game's victor. After 13 first-half turnovers, Alabama committed just one in the entire second half.

This led to more chances from deep and shots inside. This was also the time we got to see Alabama's depth shine alongside the aforementioned 2023-24 duo. This was most apparent in the Tide's backcourt as Labaron Philon finished with 16 points and Chris Youngblood and Houston Mallette each tallied 10 points. All three of them hit two shots from long range.

Philon has lived up to the freshman phenom narrative practically on a nightly basis, so Wednesday wasn't too different from his typical evening. However, Mallette, who burned his redshirt after starting guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. ruptured his Achilles on Nov. 30, is really starting to come along and make a name for himself in this loaded roster. For Youngblood, this was just his second game of the season as he suffered an ankle injury in the offseason that sidelined him for a while.

As the score suggests, this was far from an easy victory for Alabama in a game that should've been just that. The Crimson Tide will get a chance to show some improvement at home for its next game against Kent State on Sunday, Dec. 22 at 12 p.m. CT.

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