By SAM LANCE
After a loss to Purdue just over 10 days ago, Nate Oats and the Tide are back to rolling. Alabama beat then-No. 25 Illinois and now has a second-straight win over a ranked opponent, defeating No. 6 Houston 85-80 in overtime of the Players Era Tournament in Las Vegas.
“This felt like a Final Four game,” Alabama senior guard Mark Sears said postgame. “The intensity, the crowd was great. It just came down to who want it.”
Alabama held onto a seven point lead at 59-52 with 10:25 to play until Houston stormed back on a 15-4 run to make it a tight game down the stretch. The game was within four points the last 6:16 of the second half.
Sears hit a huge 3-pointer with 53 seconds left to pull the Crimson Tide within one point. Then, after Houston senior forward J’Wan Roberts was fouled and made 1-of-2 free throws, Alabama senior guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. made two free throws of his own following a questionable call.
Houston had a last look at the basket in regulation, but senior guard LJ Cryer was unable to get the shot to go, sending the game to overtime tied at 78-78. Alabama played suffocating defense in the overtime frame, outscoring Houston 7-2 to win the game. Houston didn’t score the last 3:17 of the game. Oats is now 3-0 against Kelvin Sampson. After not scoring a single point against Illinois, Sears led Alabama with 24 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the field. Sophomore forward Mouhamed Dioubate had an excellent game as well, contributing 10 points and 16 rebounds. The other Alabama players in double-figures included sophomore guard Aden Holloway (14 points), senior forward Grant Nelson (13 points) and Wrightsell (12 points). Oats reportedly told Dioubate before the game it was his time to shine. For Houston, Cryer had a game-high 30 points. Junior guard Emanuel Sharpe and Roberts followed in double-figures with 14 and 11 points, respectively. Both teams shot a mere 37% from the field. The biggest differences in the game was Alabama outrebounding Houston by nine and having 13 more bench points. “That’s the toughest, hardest-playing team in America every night out,” Oats said. “I have a ton of respect for how hard they play. For us to outrebound them by nine, you gotta have some tough guys to do it.” Alabama will play Rutgers tomorrow to conclude group play of the Players Era Tournament. After those two group games, teams from the two groups will be ranked 1-4 based on their overall record. On Saturday, the No. 1 seeds from each group will play, along with the No. 2 seeds, and so on. More details on Players Era can be found here. Follow Sam Lance on Twitter Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter Follow ZAGSBLOGHoops on Instagram And Like ZAGS on FacebookEmanuel Sharp fouls out on… this 😬 pic.twitter.com/ZYE16Vu7ff
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