Alabama’s mens basketball team chalked up another win. The difference was the Tide beat LSU with no help from star guard Mark Sears. The usual playmaker for Alabama was held scoreless for the first half of the game and sat out on the bench for the second half. Head coach Nate Oats says Sears didn’t score any points back against Illinois back in November and the Tide won that game as well as LSU…
“We figured it out. I mean, our defense essentially won the game, though, really. I mean, our offense was good enough to win, but our defense won us this game where I did think, you know, against Illinois, our defense wasn't bad, but our offense won that game.”
Alabama guard Mark Sears came into Saturday night's game against LSU leading the team and the Southeastern Conference in scoring but was held scoreless and spent the entire second half of the Crimson Tide's 80-73 win on the bench. Sears, a preseason All-American averaging 19 points per game, went 0 for 5 from the field with three rebounds, three assists and two turnovers. Oats pointed to defensive consistency, especially into the second half, as a reason for lineup changes.
“We had guys stepped up, scored it. You know, when Mark wasn't able to find his kind of scoring, uh, rhythm, but, yeah. I mean, there's a couple games now where he hasn't been able to score, but we gotta just keep, keep at it.”
Alabama hits the road to play Mississippi State on Wednesday.
