The Alabama Crimson Tide’s magical basketball season came to an end Sunday night, falling to the UCLA Bruins 88-78.
The Tide started the matchup off very slow, allowing UCLA to jump out to a 7-1 lead in the opening minutes of the game.
Bama star Herb Jones got in foul trouble very early on, with back-to-back charges called on him. As the senior leader of coach Nate Oats’ team, Jones is a big part of what Alabama likes to do on defense as well as offense.
With two fouls in the opening 45 seconds of the game, it looked like the Tide were going to be in for a long night. However, when Jones hit the bench, Bama started its comeback.
Jahvon Quinerly entered the game and helped things up 7-7 after six minutes of play. The guard had the most points of any player on the court, scoring 20 total.
Johnny Juzang for UCLA and the rest of coach Mick Cronin’s team started to fight back midway through the first half.
The Bruins came clawing back into the game, and with under seven minutes left in the first half finally grabbed the lead again for the first time since the opening minutes. After UCLA rallied back to grab a 27-25 lead, it was back and forth down the stretch until a late run for the Bruins put them ahead of Alabama.
At the half, UCLA managed to pull ahead 40-29 over the Tide thanks to the play of Juzang and Jules Bernard.
Bernard scored 13 points off of four three-point shots, including one with a foul after the make. However, Alabama was not ready to give up on the opportunity to keep dancing.
The Bruins hit their last four three-point shots at the half. Yet, to start out the second half of play, UCLA missed their first three shots of the half. All three were from beyond the arc.
Bama went on a 7-0 run to start the second half to slowly chip away at the lead that UCLA had carried with them into the half.
The Tide then went on an 11-0 run to tie the game at 40 early in the second half.
Juzang and Bernard started out the second half cold, combining to go 0-5 from deep to start the half as it took six minutes for UCLA to score a point.
UCLA later tied the game at 61 a piece on the first of a pair of Jaime Jaquez, Jr.’s free throws up with 45 seconds left, and then remained tied with a miss on the second. Jones for Alabama then also went one of two for free throws on the other end.
With less than 30 seconds left, the Tide led by one, and UCLA managed to get the ball down low to big man Cody Riley for the Bruins to flip the lead of one to their side.
Alabama then had 15 seconds left down one with the ball in their possession. Herb Jones got fouled in the final seconds and comes up to the line to possibly put the game away. Jones missed both free throws.
On the other side, the Bruins hit two free throws to give them a three-point lead over the Tide with only five seconds remaining in the game.
Alex Reese for the Tide, who has been battling injury and has seen his numbers decline slightly in the last few weeks, was given the ball for a last-second desperation shot.
Reese hit the deep shot from the March Madness logo to send the game to overtime.
UCLA took over the game in overtime to defeat Alabama 88-78 and advance to the Elite Eight.
Alabama’s trip to the Sweet 16 was its first time doing so since 2004.
The team that has lived by the three all season was not able to live by the three on Sunday. Instead, Bama went just 7-28 from deep.
Hayden Crigler is a contributing college football and college basketball writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him through email: [email protected] or on Twitter: @hayden_crigler.
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