Mark Sears 'Looked Like a Player of the Year Candidate' Early Against South Carolina

Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats praises the Preseason All-American guard for a dominant first half that sparked Alabama past the Gamecocks.

Jan 8, 2025; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide guard Mark Sears (1) celebrates a three point basket against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the first half at Colonial Life Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-Imagn Images / Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

No. 5 Alabama men's basketball easily handled South Carolina 88-68 on Wednesday evening.

The SEC this season as a whole is indisputably the best conference in college basketball after non-conference play. Traveling to any SEC program for the first time this season can be tough on the away teams regardless of rank, but an early spark could eliminate any jitters.

Enter Alabama Preseason All-American guard Mark Sears, who got hot immediately. Sears finished the first half with 16 points on 6-of-7 from the field, including 4-of-4 on attempts from behind the arc.

"Mark was really good early," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said during the postgame press conference. "I think he scored or assisted on 17 of our first 25 [points]. He looked like a [Naismith] Player of the Year candidate to start the game."

Sometimes to get hot, all you need to see is one shot sink through the net. For Sears, it came on his first attempt.

"It's hard to win on the road," Sears said during the postgame press conference. We have to do whatever we've got to do to win on the road and just seeing the first try go in, it felt good after that."

Sears proceeded to convert on his next four attempts, including a pair of threes. This helped spark the rest of Alabama's offense in the first half as it exploited South Carolina's defense quite often (1.36 points per possession at the break).

"We just try to play out fast," Sears said. "You know, trying to get our defense to lead to easy transition buckets on the offensive end. Then when we're in the half court, we just play with our connectors and move the ball."

Sears' effort certainly rubbed off on the rest of the team in the first half as Alabama's 60 percent from the field (18-of-30), including a 6-of-11 clip from downtown. In addition to 13 assists, the Tide also grabbed six offensive rebounds, which led to seven second-chance points, scored 22 points in the paint and recorded five steals and three blocks.

Oats admitted that South Carolina "did a pretty good job" of taking Sears out in the second half, as he scored six points in the latter period, shooting 1-of-5 from the field and 4-of-4 from the free-throw line, but had four assists for a game total of six. However, numerous other members of the Crimson Tide continued to feed off of Sears' stellar start for the remainder of the game.

Center Clifford Omoruyi was the only Alabama frontcourt player to score double figures in the full game as he logged 10 points. That said, forwards Derrion Reid (9), Aiden Sherrell (7) and Mouhamed Dioubate (7) were close.

Even when Alabama had scoring droughts, its defense prevailed in making sure South Carolina didn't chip away. Forwards Grant Nelson, Jarin Stevenson and Dioubate, among others, played a key role here as Gamecocks forward Collin Murray-Boyles, SC's leading scorer coming into the game, finished 1-of-6 from the field.

Additionally, Aden Holloway scored seven straight points early in the second half. The importance of depth played a role in this one as Holloway led Alabama to 36 bench points while the Gamecocks had four. Furthermore, South Carolina's secondary group didn't score a bench point until there were less than two minutes remaining in regulation.

Mark Sears and Alabama will be on the road once again when the Tide faces No. 10 Texas A&M this Saturday.