A glance at the official box score from Alabama basketball‘s 107-79 thrashing of Oklahoma on Saturday showed 16 points for the Sooners‘ leading scorer, Jeremiah Fears, just a couple points shy of his season average of 18.7.
It was a classic box-score lie.
The Crimson Tide defense − primarily freshman guard Labaron Philon − clamped down on Fears and took him out of rhythm, out of sorts and out of the game. And that, as much as anything, ensured that OU had no chance to keep pace with a Crimson Tide offense that cracked the 100-point threshold for the fourth time this season.
It was the ideal way to begin SEC play for an Alabama team that struggled defensively last season before finding its stride in the NCAA Tournament.
A freshman, Fears missed his first eight shots, had just one point at halftime and was visibly frustrated almost from the start. There was some chatter between Philon and Fears – most notably after Philon connected on a first-half 3-pointer when Fears was late to defend – that plainly got under his skin. Soon after, Fears committed a foul on Alabama’s Chris Youngblood that went to video review for a possible flagrant call. Although led by Philon, it was a group defensive effort against a player who UA coach Nate Oats said is already, as a freshman, on the radar of NBA scouts.
UA forward Grant Nelson forced two Fears misses after picking him up on switches after screens, including a blocked shot in the second half. Heck, even when a whistle stopped play, Fears fired a couple dead-ball shots that UA center Cliff Omoruyi swatted away for fun. Why even let him see one of those go through the basket? By the time Fears scored his first field goal with just 11:40 remaining, all it did was cut Alabama’s lead from 24 points to 22.
Tears for Fears.
“He’s really good in so many other ways, but he’s got to play that way,” said OU coach Porter Moser. “He can’t wait for his first shot to fall before he gets other guys involved.”
Moser said he and Fears discussed that at length during the game, and there was plenty of time to do so because Moser sat him for a significant stretch early in the second half. By that point, it might have been clear to Moser, with Alabama leading by 20-plus points, that a comeback wasn’t in the cards.
It was clear enough to everyone else in the building.
Fears finally began to find his shooting stroke late, but his contributions did little more than prevent Alabama from extending its lead to 30. If the term “garbage points” was in the dictionary, a picture of Fears’ night at Coleman could appear beside it.
Still, the perfectionist in UA coach Nate Oats wanted a better defensive finish on Fears.
“We’ve held him to one point for the first 30 minutes of the game, then all the sudden we give up 15 the last 10 minutes or so,” Oats said. “A little disappointing. But for the first 30 minutes, I thought we did a great job. Labaron came ready to go.”
Prolific scorers have a way of getting their points one way or another.
But for Alabama’s defense, the best way is after an insurmountable lead has already been built.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
