Alabama hands No. 1 UNC second loss in 4OT

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Mark Sears had 24 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, and No. 18 Alabama sent top-ranked North Carolina to a 2nd consecutive nonaccomplishment with a 103-101 victory successful a quadruple-overtime thriller Sunday successful the third-place crippled of the Phil Knight Invitational tournament.

Jahvon Quinerly added 21 points disconnected the seat for the Crimson Tide (6-1), who knocked disconnected the top-ranked squad for the archetypal clip since upsetting Stanford successful the 2004 NCAA tournament.

"I was losing way of however galore overtimes we were successful determination astatine the end," Crimson Tide manager Nate Oats said. "A batch of recognition to our guys. I thought they showed a batch of quality erstwhile we could person folded."

Charles Bediako had 14 points, 16 rebounds and 3 blocks, portion Brandon Miller besides scored 14 points.

Caleb Love led the Tar Heels (5-2) with 34 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Armando Bacot contributed 20 points and 10 rebounds, and R.J. Davis had 19 points and 9 rebounds successful the 2nd four-overtime crippled successful North Carolina history. The different was a triumph implicit Tulane successful 1976.

"At the extremity of the day, Alabama made 1 much play than we did," North Carolina manager Hubert Davis said. "I walked successful the locker country and a fig of the guys had their caput down and I told them to prime their caput up. I'm conscionable arsenic disappointed [as the players] successful presumption of the last outcome, but I couldn't beryllium immoderate much arrogant astir the mode they competed."

Bediako gave the Crimson Tide the pb for bully connected a layup with 26 seconds remaining successful the 4th overtime.

The Tar Heels, who mislaid to Iowa State successful the semifinals, led by arsenic overmuch arsenic 8 successful the 2nd fractional earlier Alabama came backmost to necktie it. The Crimson Tide retook the pb connected a brace of escaped throws from Gurley with 2 minutes remaining and aboriginal tied the crippled with different escaped propulsion from Sears with 51 seconds remaining successful regulation.

Alabama starting guardant Noah Clowney took a hard autumn connected a dunk effort 4 minutes into the archetypal fractional and had to beryllium helped disconnected the court. He did not return.

The Crimson Tide were 16-for-38 (42.1%) from 3-point range, with Sears making seven.

BIG PICTURE

North Carolina: The Tar Heels fig to instrumentality a heavy driblet successful the Top 25 poll.

Alabama: The Crimson Tide bounced backmost nicely pursuing their nonaccomplishment to No. 20 UConn successful the semifinals.

UP NEXT

North Carolina: The Tar Heels question to Bloomington to look No. 11 Indiana connected Wednesday.

Alabama: The Crimson Tide instrumentality location to look South Dakota State connected Saturday.