Alabama bounces out of NCAA tournament with overtime loss to UCLA
Alabama basketball’s meteoric rise this season was met with a heartbreaking ending as the No. 2 seed Crimson Tide bowed out of the NCAA tournament with a 88-78 overtime loss to No. 11 seed UCLA on Sunday night.
A buzzer-beating 3 from Alex Reese kept Alabama’s season alive, forcing the game to overtime. However, the Crimson Tide ran out of gas in overtime as the Bruins put a bitter end to Alabama’s first Sweet 16 appearance since 2004.
Alabama ends its season at 26-7, while UCLA (21-9) will move on to face No. 1 seed Michigan (23-4) on Tuesday in the Elite Eight. Alabama’s 26 wins are tied for its second-highest single-season total in school history.
“It’s a historic season,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “I don’t want them to walk out of this locker room with their heads down. You know, you could make the argument that it’s one of the best if not the best Alabama basketball teams in history.”
A roller-coaster game marked by dramatic runs featured a tense final eight minutes of regulation as neither team led by more than 3 points.
Trailing UCLA 63-62, Alabama forward Herbert Jones had an opportunity to put the Tide up as he was sent to the line for two free throws with 6.8 seconds to play. However, the senior missed both foul shots forcing the Tide to foul.
UCLA’s David Singleton then hit two free throws on the other end to extend the lead to 65-62 and set up Reese’s heroics. With 4.2 seconds remaining Jones hurled a pass to Jahvon Quinerly from the baseline. The point guard then dumped the ball off to Reese who hit a 3 from well beyond the top of the arc to tie the game.
“We work on that play every day in shootaround,” Petty said. “That’s one of our go-to plays, and we actually do it with around the same amount of time that we had on the clock when we came out of the timeout. Once we seen that, we knew exactly what play we were going to, and we knew one of us was going to get a shot.
Luckily Alex got the shot right at one of his favorite spots right at the top of the key, and does what he always do — make big-time shots. I was really happy that he gave us a second chance to win the game. Like Coach said, it didn’t happen that way, so it’s just that.
Alabama missed its first four shots in overtime as UCLA jumped out to an early 7-point lead in the extra period before burying a desperate Tide.
Alabama played well enough to win in regulation, outshooting UCLA 43 percent to 39 percent from the floor on the night. However, the Tide suffered from the free-throw line where it went 11 of 25 (44 percent). Meanwhile, UCLA went 20 of 25 from the line, including 11 of 13 in overtime.
Quinerly led Alabama with 20 points, ending his season with 15 straight games in double figures.
John Petty Jr. rebounded from a rough first half to score 16 points, while Keon Ellis had 10 points and nine rebounds. Jones had 8 points and nine rebounds but suffered one of his worst nights offensively, shooting 0-for-3 from beyond the arc and 2 of 7 from the free-throw line.
“It’s disappointing,” Oats said. “If we make them, we win the game. It hurts to lose a game knowing if you make free throws, you win.”
UCLA was led by guards Jules Bernard and Jaime Jaquez Jr. who both scored 17 points apiece. Singleton had 15 points while Johnny Juzang and Tyger Campbell had 13 points and Cody Riley had 10 points.
Alabama got off to a rough start as Jones was called for two charges in the opening 41 seconds of the game. With the SEC player of the year on the bench, UCLA got off to a 7-1 advantage before the Tide responded with a 14-0 run to take control of the game. However, the Bruins answered back with a 20-6 run later in the period, making 12 of their final 19 shots from the floor in the first half to take a 40-29 lead into the break.
After recording just 2 points on 1 of 6 shooting in the first half, John Petty Jr. came out firing after break, spurring an 11-0 Alabama run to help the Tide erase the deficit in less than five minutes. From there the two teams would remain relatively close, setting up the dramatic finish to regulation.
Alabama is set to lose four scholarship seniors in Jones, Petty, Reese and Jordan Bruner as well as three walk-ons in Tyler Barnes, Kendall Wall and Britton Johnson for next season. However, it will still feature a talented nucleus, including its Quinerly, Ellis, Jaden Shackelford, Joshua Primo and Juwan Gary.
“I definitely expect them to be right here in this position or farther,” Petty said of Alabama’s future teams. “Just with the talent level we have coming in recruiting, the experience our guys are going to have coming in next year, the guys that actually play heavy minutes like Jaden Shackelford, Jahvon Quinerly, Juwan Gary.
“There’s a bunch of guys that didn’t play but battled against us each day. I just know that they’re ready to play."
