No. 4 seed Alabama defeats No. 1 seed UNC in Sweet 16

LOS ANGELES — Alabama senior forward Grant Nelson came up clutch as the No. 4 Crimson Tide (24-11, 13-5 SEC) defeated the No. 1 seed UNC men’s basketball team (29-8, 17-3 ACC), 89-87, on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena, ending the Tar Heels’ season. The Crimson Tide advance to the Elite Eight for the second time in program history and the first time since 2004.

North Carolina punched first as the Tar Heels got out to a 10-point lead after six minutes of play. From there, the Crimson Tide battled back, going on a 17-7 run to tie the game at 26 apiece. Alabama senior guard Mark Sears played a big role, scoring seven of the Crimson Tide’s points in that stretch.

Still, North Carolina was able to pull ahead with a 13-5 run to end the half. UNC’s newcomers did most of the heavy lifting in the first period, with graduate guard Cormac Ryan, junior forward Harrison Ingram and first-year guard Elliot Cadeau combining for 30 points. 

The Tar Heels entered the locker room up 54-46.

The second half started much slower, at least from an offensive standpoint. At the first media timeout UNC had only recorded one point. Alabama had six. 

"I thought in the second half we came out a little flat," graduate center Armando Bacot said. "But like Cormac [Ryan] said, they got a lot of rebounds. We knew coming into the game they shot a lot of threes, and it would lead to a lot of long rebounds."

And in a huge blow to the Tar Heels, Bacot soon headed to the bench with his third foul. With a somewhat makeshift lineup of Ingram, Ryan, Davis, Jae’Lyn Withers and Paxson Wojcik, UNC managed to keep the game close until Bacot re-entered, which continued to progress with both teams battling neck-and-neck.

Then, with under five minutes remaining, the Tar Heels made another push. Withers cut UNC's deficit to three points with a tough drive to the rim and corralled a defensive rebound on the other end of the floor. Davis added a floater to bring the score within one point. Four Davis free throws later and UNC found itself up three points, only to have Alabama cut the lead to one with a Sears layup.

Nelson caught the ball on a cut to the basket and earned an and-1 over Withers to put Alabama up 87-85 with 35 seconds to go. After a timeout, Nelson backed his play up with a defiant block of Davis' layup.

"We just tried to get the best shot possible," Davis said. "Try to get an easy two going. I thought I had an advantage on Nelson, was able to blow by, but he was able to swat it."

Nelson's trip to the line in the final seconds secured North Carolina's fate with an insurmountable 4-point lead. 

"Always in the closing minutes, it comes down to a play here or there," UNC head coach Hubert Davis said. "I've talked all season about the little details that make big things happen, not just necessarily shots — rebounds, free throws, loose balls. At the end of the day, they made more plays down the stretch than us. And unfortunately we came out on the short end."

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