Three Takeaways From Alabama Basketball's Steamrolling Over South Carolina

The Crimson Tide exterminated the Gamecocks 88-68 in its first SEC road test.

Alabama forward Mouhamed Dioubate (10) dunks the ball against South Carolina at Colonial Life Arena in Columbus, SC on Wednesday, Jan 8, 2025. / Photo by Crimson Tide Photos / UA Athletics

No. 5 Alabama men's basketball cruised by South Carolina 88-68 on Wednesday evening. This was the Crimson Tide's first SEC road test of the season and it passed with flying colors.

The Crimson Tide got out to a massive lead early and never looked back due to stellar performances on both ends of the floor.

There's so much to dissect from this matchup at Colonial Life Arena. Here are three takeaways:

Mark Sears Sparks Offense Immediately

Simply put, Alabama Preseason All-American guard Mark Sears kept the scoreboard operator working early and often as he 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).

Alabama Quickly Clamps Down Gamecocks Comeback Hopes

Alabama's tremendous start kept the Tide composed and the Gamecocks were unable to make a massive comeback. Even when Alabama had scoring droughts, its defense prevailed in making sure South Carolina didn't chip away at the large deficit.

Forwards Mouhamed Dioubate and Jarin Stevenson, 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.

“I thought Mo Dioutbate’s defense on Murray-Boyles was one of the big, big keys in the game, to be honest with you," Oats said. "A lot of people have him in the first round of the draft. He shot 1-for-6 tonight, only had six points, and I thought Dioubate did a great job guarding him. Mo’s plus-19 in his 17 minutes when he was in. He really impacts the game in a big way. I was happy with his effort."

Oats also mentioned during the postgame press conference that Dioubate plus Derrion Reid and Labaron Philon "take a lot of pride" in their defense and "stopping guys," especially when they have to guard not only the best player on the other team, but an NBA-level prospect as well.

South Carolina didn't even pull within single digits in the second half. The Gamecocks shot a solid 43 percent from the field, but an abysmal 3-of-14 from deep for the game. Alabama finished with 10 steals and forced 15 turnovers, which led to 19 points off of them.

“I thought our defense was significantly better for the whole 40 than it had been," Oats said. "I didn’t like the start of the second half. We had been having bad starts, especially when we had leads. So we made a little bit of a change. I thought the intensity picked up and we were able to kind of keep the lead. I’m not sure how close they got there in the second half, but I thought we did a pretty good job keeping them at bay for the most part."

Crimson Tide Depth Takes Over Game

The start to the second half was a bit slower for Alabama, as after a poor play, Oats took out the entire starting five. One of the replacements was guard Aden Holloway who scored seven straight points for Alabama to regain the Tide's momentum and build a more comfortable 56-39 lead with 15 minutes to go in the second half.

The importance of depth played a role in this one as Holloway, who scored 13 points on 5-of-7 from the field, led Alabama to 39 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.

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 Reid (9), Dioubate (7) and Aiden Sherrell (7) were close––each of which coming off the bench.

Across the roster, Alabama shined on Wednesday night, but the main negative that stood out was its somewhat worrisome 10-of-20 performance from the free-throw line, which Oats simply didn't have an explanation for after the game. Besides that, the Crimson Tide dominated in several stat categories that stemmed from its successful depth usage.

But perhaps the most notable positive team stat came down low. Alabama shot an impressive 8-of-19 from downtown but scored 48 points in the paint. The Crimson Tide converted a 27-of-45 clip from two-point range, went 12-of-20 on layups and 6-of-6 on dunk attempts.

“We spread people out," Oats said. "We only ended up with 19 threes, which isn’t as many as we’d like. We’ve shot 55 in a game this year. We’re still where we’re at in the country in three-pointers per game. We’re somewhere up in the top five I believe, so people are cognizant of the fact we like to shoot. You can spread them out a little bit.

"Particularly, [most teams] lock onto Sears like [South Carolina] did tonight. It opens up big driving gaps. We’ve got strong, tough, physical drivers––Dioubate, Jarin Stevenson. Derrion Reid drove it to the rim well today, Grant Nelson [too]. You kind of go through that list. Kind of get downhill, so the guys are getting downhill, kind of open the lanes."

Alabama improves to 13-2 (2-0 SEC) while South Carolina slides down to 10-5 (0-2 SEC). The Crimson Tide will be on the road once again when it faces No. 10 Texas A&M this Saturday.