TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Sitting one assist away from his second double-double of the season, Mark Sears shot a look over at Chris Youngblood on Alabama’s bench.

“You know who to find,” Youngblood said confidently.

A few moments later, Sears dished the ball out to Youngblood on the fastbreak, setting up his teammate for an easy 3 while notching his 10th assist of the night during Alabama’s 111-73 win over Mississippi State.

Six of Sears’ 10 assists led to 3-pointers, as Alabama knocked down 22 of 45 (49%) shots from beyond the arc. Three of those assisted 3s went to Youngblood, who finished with a team-high 27 points on 7 of 11 shooting from deep.

“It’s easy when I’ve got shooters like CY,” Sears said. “If they want to help, it’s easy. One simple pass, and they’re gonna knock it down every time.”

Sears has a hot hand himself lately. Coming off back-to-back games with 30 or more points, the graduate guard put up another 21 against the Bulldogs on Tuesday night. Over his last three games, he’s now averaging 28.7 points per game while shooting 13 of 31 (41.9%) percent from beyond the arc.

That’s the type of scoring Alabama has come to expect from the preseason SEC Player of the Year. However, its distribution like Tuesday night that might be the key factor in him leading the Tide back to the Final Four.

“[We’re] really good when he’s distributing like this,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “I’ve been telling you guys, he’s been playing his best basketball of his career on both sides. For him to have a positive defensive leverage, that hasn’t always been the case. He just gets locked into getting stops, doing winning things. He doesn’t care who scores.

“... He was happy. He was happy CY scored 27. We talk about ‘Mudita.’ I thought Sears was really happy for everybody else that was able to get in the scoring column, and he was able to get some assists. And yeah, we definitely will show highlights of this.”

When Sears is dishing the ball out like this, Alabama is nearly unbeatable. Tuesday marked the second time the starting point guard has recorded 10 or more assists. The other was when he doled out 11 assists during Alabama’s 107-79 win over Oklahoma in January. That’s a combined 66-point advantage for the Tide in the two games Sears has accomplished the feat.

An unselfish Sears has long been a successful recipe for Alabama. Over the guard’s three seasons in Tuscaloosa, the Tide is 9-0 when he records seven or more assists. Six of those wins have come this season.

“He’s playing at an elite level right now, not just tonight but in some previous games,” Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans said of Sears. “He’s doing it both, when he’s scoring the basketball, when he’s driving the basketball for himself. But then when he’s finding others, it makes him and them very, very difficult to defend.”

After learning about Alabama’s 9-0 mark when Sears has seven or more assists, Oats stopped the guard before the locker room to share the stat with him.

“Seven assists?” he responded with a smile. “We got Tennessee next, I’ll see what I can do.”