PORTLAND, Ore. — The No. 18-18 Alabama men’s basketball team overtook No. 1-1 North Carolina in four overtime, 103-101, in Sunday’s game for third place at the 2022 Phil Knight Invitational. In a 15-tie, 14-lead contest The Crimson Tide held its ground in the closing seconds to record its fourth win in program history over a No. 1 opponent by the Associated Press (4-7).
Mark Sears led the Crimson Tide with a season-high 24 points, including a career-high seven threes and Jahvon Quinerly add 21 points, eight assists and six rebounds off the bench. His last penny was a lob to Charles Bediako with 26 seconds remaining, resulting in the game-winning bucket. UNC (5-2) had both teams chances to win the game as the Tide led by four points to start the second overtime while the Tar Heels led by six points in triple overtime.
Alabama improved to 3-0 in program history in quadruple overtime contests, the last of which was in South Carolina on February 17, 2017 (won 90-86). Four other players reached double digits, with Charles Bediako recording 14 points and 16 boards, as well as three blocks and two steals.
📊 FINAL STATISTICS: Check out the final stats of the 4OT excitement
HEAD COACH NATE OATS POST-GAME COMMENTS
“That was fun! I don’t know if I’ve ever been involved in a four overtime game. I lost count of how much overtime we ended up with, but we gave our guys a lot of credit. There was a lot of character and we could have folded. Coming back from a six-man deficit in the third overtime we were tired and both teams like to go up and down and it became half-court play most of the time by the end of the game. I thought the boys were making some contemporary games; I thought Charles (Bediako) was great for us with 16 rebounds and played 44 minutes for a guy who isn’t used to playing 20+ so he can stay in for 40+ and no foul out is likely a record for Charles. Armando Bacot is obviously good, but I thought Charles was a pretty good match for him. I give a lot of credit to North Carolina they don’t have a lot of depth and to do overtime for them four and go toe to toe with us shows a lot that quinerly wasn’t cleared to play a few weeks ago and came in and played 44 minutes, I didn’t think it was one of his best shooting performances for sure, but he still finishes with 21 points, six rebounds and eight assists, I think that’s still a good stat for a guy who wasn’t up for two weeks ago allowed to play.”
RANKINGS: Check out the latest Men’s Basketball AP Top 25
TEAM STATISTICS
- Alabama played a quadruple overtime game for the third time in program history, winning each of the previous three
- The other 4OT event occurred on February 12, 1972 at LSU (won 103-99)
- It was the second quadruple overtime game between AP top 20 teams in history (2009 Big East Tournament game between No. 3 UConn and No. 18 Syracuse).
- Alabama’s bench scored 47 points, outperforming their counterparts by 33 (47-14)
- Brandon Miller finished the tournament with 14 points and seven rebounds despite struggling with fouls
- After committing his fourth foul early in the second half, Miller didn’t return until the 8:56 mark of the second half and played the final 28:56 (remainder of the rule and all four overtimes) without a foul
- The Tide hit 16 threes and finished 16 of 38 (42 percent) from deep
SECOND HALF
- Alabama led by as much as seven (46-39) and 5:30 p.m. to go
- The Tar Heels beat the tide 24-9 over the next eight minutes and took the biggest lead by 63-55 with 9-30 remaining
- UA went on to score 16 of the game’s next 24 points to level it at 71-71 with 4:51 left in the game
- The half would end in a 77 draw
- Clowney and Sears each led 10 points in the half to lead UA while Bediako took down five boards, including three on the offensive end
MORE: Iowa State stuns No. 1 North Carolina men’s basketball, 70-65
OVERTIME NOTES
- The teams each scored four points together and were tied 81-81 after five minutes of overtime
- In the second overtime, UA scored the first four points to take an 87-83 lead
- The Tide led 89-85 with 2:20 points remaining but didn’t score another goal and ended up stuck at 89-all
- North Carolina opened the third extra session with six straight points and led 95-89
- Alabama fought back, surpassing UNC 7-1 in the final 3:39 to end the period in a 96-96 tie
- With the Tar Heels leading by a margin, Quinerly floated a pass over the top of the defense to Bediako, who converted the layup with 26 seconds left
- Bediako averaged eight points and eight rebounds in overtime while Miller added seven and Quinerly added six points and two assists
NEXT
- Alabama will return home on Saturday, December 3 to take on South Dakota State
- Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 pm CT at the Coleman Coliseum and will air on SEC Network+
